


Beautiful Disaster

by OhYaBettaDont



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Gaming, I'll add more tags as the story progresses to avoid spoilers, Meeting the Parents, Multi, Mutual Pining, Romantic Comedy, Slice of Life, Trans Character, a little magic, as a treat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 40,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28002540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhYaBettaDont/pseuds/OhYaBettaDont
Summary: Ben hadn’t felt this way about someone since Mal had put a love spell on him. The difference was, this time was the real deal. He’d even checked the security tapes at the Museum of Cultural History to make sure nobody had touched that awful spell book since the moment it was put on display. The book was untouched, so there was no chance of anyone meddling in his love life with a spell.Besides, no mastermind, good, evil, or otherwise, would have any reason to spell Ben into falling in love with Carlos De Vil, anyways.Unless, maybe, they knew how badly it would torment him.
Relationships: Ben/Carlos de Vil, Evie/Mal (Disney), Evie/Mal/Uma (Disney), Mal/Uma (Disney)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! In case you're wondering what I've been working on over the past few months... it's this. It started off with kind of a silly idea that I just ran with, but it's developing into the longest fic I've ever written, so stay tuned for (hopefully) frequent updates!

Ben hadn’t felt this way about someone since Mal had put a love spell on him. The difference was, this time was the real deal. He’d even checked the security tapes at the Museum of Cultural History to make sure nobody had touched that awful spell book since the moment it was put on display. The book was untouched, so there was no chance of anyone meddling in his love life with a spell.

Besides, no mastermind, good, evil, or otherwise, would have any reason to spell Ben into falling in love with Carlos De Vil, anyways.

Unless, maybe, they knew how badly it would torment him.

Ben had thought he’d made his feelings clear when he invited Carlos out on a picnic, just the two of them. But, after at least an hour of hearing Carlos babble about this new Animal Crossing game as they ate, Ben realized that Carlos had no idea this was even supposed to be a date.

“Yeah, Raymond was literally my first campsite visitor,” Carlos enthused with a mouth full of bread and cheese. “And you know the first one will move onto your island no matter what, so now Raymond’s on my island!” Despite Carlos’s awful table manners (they were worse than Mal’s, and that way saying something), Ben studied the beautiful face in front of him, even when it was full of food. Wide brown eyes accented by a sea of freckles and contrasting with bleach blond hair… “Can you believe that?” Carlos added, breaking Ben’s trance. He finally chewed and swallowed.

Ben knew nothing about this game Carlos was talking about, and he didn’t exactly care either. Still, he found himself fixating on Carlos’s full lips in a way that was hopefully not too obvious and responding, “Wow, no way!”

“Yeah way. My island’s gonna be awesome,” Carlos replied, reaching for a chocolate éclair. He smiled reflectively. “Man, this is great.”

Ben perked up. Carlos enjoying himself on their date was just the spark of hope Ben needed as he was starting to get discouraged about taking Carlos out in the first place. “Really?” was all he managed to say, and he couldn’t stop himself from saying it way too eagerly.

“Totally.” Carlos bit into the éclair, immediately getting chocolate all around his mouth. The sight made Ben nostalgic for the moment they’d met: watching as Carlos and his friend Jay wrestled out of the limo, Carlos’s perfect face covered in chocolate like he was a little kid. How many times had Ben fantasized about going back to that moment, sweeping the chocolate-covered blond off his feet and kissing the candy right off his lips?

Seeing Carlos like that again, Ben realized he could make that fantasy a reality. He licked his lips, preparing to lean in toward Carlos.

“We should do this again, but like, invite Jay or Evie. They’d love this,” Carlos suggested mid-chew.

Ben could feel his heart deflating. Lord have mercy.

***

The next day, Ben did a little bit of research on Animal Crossing in hopes that taking an interest in Carlos’s hobbies could make Carlos more interested in him. After figuring out the basics of the game, learning who Raymond was, and discovering why it was such a big deal that Carlos’s island had Raymond, Ben made one last Google search:

“How to get out of the friendzone,” Ben typed. He hit Enter and sighed. In his empty office, he asked himself, “Is the King of Auradon really getting this desperate?”

He was. Ben hadn’t been single since he was five years old, and his breakup with Mal had made him realize that singing an upbeat love song in front of the whole school was usually not the best way to break the ice on a new relationship. But what _was_ the best way, then? When Google’s results proved unhelpful, Ben knew he had one person he could turn to.

***

“What’s wrong?” Mal asked when she opened the door. Not “hello,” not “nice to see you,” but “what’s wrong?”

Nervously, Ben ran a hand against the rugged stone wall of the small castle where Mal and Evie lived. Even though he was on good terms with his ex, confronting her sometimes put him on edge. “Could I… ask you for some advice?”

Based on the suspicious look Mal gave him, she probably thought this was “King stuff,” as many of his friends had started calling it. But she hesitantly let him in.

They sat next to each other on the couch in the living room, looking out the window at the vibrant green woods just outside. Ben took a deep breath. “Please don’t hate me, but I’m in love again,” he blurted out.

Mal blinked. She didn’t respond immediately, instead taking a second to pick at the ends of her deep purple hair while she processed that information. “With who?” She eventually asked. The subtle squeakiness of her tone revealed that she was doing a bad job of pretending to be chill about it – it was one of her vocal quirks that Ben had noticed back when they were dating.

Yep, Mal was definitely going to hate him for this. He tried to break it to her slowly. “Well, it’s a friend of yours,” he started.

“Is it Evie?” Mal growled, her eyes flashing bright green before returning to their regular hazel-green shade. “If it is, I’ll kill you.” Ben also noticed the death grip her right hand had on one of the throw pillows Evie had hand-made to go with the couch.

“Woah, no,” Ben exclaimed, putting his hands up as if Mal were pointing a gun at him. “It’s not Evie. I promise.”

Though she didn’t let up on her suspicious glare, Mal did take a deep breath and let that poor pillow out of her clutches. “I guess I should trust a king’s promise. If it’s not Evie, who is it then?”

Ben cleared his throat in a futile attempt to get rid of the lump that had formed there. Slowly, as if worried he’d mispronounce it, he muttered, “Uh, Carlos?”

Mal’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You’re kidding.”

“I told you I like men,” Ben replied with a shrug. He could tell Mal’s edges were softening, which put him at ease as well.

Sitting back on the sofa, Mal breathed out a short laugh. “Wow,” she mused, “who would’ve thought?” She shook her head, allowing herself to smile.

“But here’s my issue,” Ben continued. “He’s completely clueless, and no matter what I do, I can’t get him to take the hint. I literally took him on a romantic picnic the other day, and he still thought we were just hanging out as bros.”

“Huh. That’s funny,” said Mal.

“What’s funny about that?” Calling Ben’s struggles funny was hurtful as heck.

Mal started picking at the ends of her hair again. “I don’t know how to say this, but I’m kinda having the same problem with Evie.”

Ben tried to process what Mal had just said, but it made no sense to him. “I’m not following you.”

“Don’t be dense, Ben,” Mal hissed in a surprisingly not scary fashion. “I’m in love with my roommate, and she has no idea! I’ve tried everything. I told her I loved her, and she thought I meant just as friends. I even sang her a stupid love song, and still nothing!” At that, Mal got up from the couch and started pacing. Another classic Mal quirk.

“Wow,” was all Ben could manage to say. “Do Jay and Carlos know?” he asked.

Mal grumbled as she paced, “Ugh, no. They’re both terrible at keeping secrets.” She huffed. “Sometimes I wish I could just cast a love spell on her, but we learned the hard way how dangerously strong they can be.”

“And how quickly they fade,” Ben sighed, looking down to avoid making eye contact with Mal. For such a sore subject, the whole love spell thing came up between them a lot. He snapped his head back up. “Hey, maybe we could help each other out.”

Mal stopped pacing to look curiously at Ben. “How?” she asked.

“Well, I read online that going on a double date can help diffuse tension and nerves and things. Maybe you and I can go out somewhere with Evie and Carlos.”

“Hmm.” Mal crossed her arms as she considered Ben’s offer. “I kinda like that idea. We should do something casual, though. Anything more formal than a romantic picnic might freak Carlos out. Oh! Here’s an idea. Why don’t you and Carlos come over for a movie night? That could be chill.”

Ben shrugged. “If you think that’ll work, then I think that’s perfect. Just tell me when to show up.”

***

Looking up from her laptop, Evie pursed her red lips in confusion. “You’re inviting Ben over?” she asked Mal. “What’s up with that? Are you two trying to get back together?”

“Hell no,” Mal replied. Of course Evie would be suspicious of Mal and her half-baked plan to get Evie to go on a date with her. While Mal and Ben were still friends, they weren’t close enough that they’d just hang out and watch movies together anymore. And there’s no way she could tell Evie her true ulterior motive for these plans – that it would be a double date – so she prepared to tell her friend a half-truth. “Well, uh, there’s a reason I’m inviting Carlos and not Jay. Ben’s a little madly in love with Carlos, and I agreed to help him get Carlos’s attention,” she said, nibbling her bottom lip.

Evie’s golden-brown eyes widened. She shut her laptop in surprise. “Tell. Me. More,” she demanded, standing up with all her classic Evie dramatics. Mal knew that Evie would eat this news up like a bowl of strawberry ice cream. Evie loved gossip about other people’s love lives, even though she seemed infuriatingly unaware of the romance staring her right in the face.

Mal couldn’t help but chuckle, partially at how cute Evie was when she got that dramatic and partially out of embarrassment about saying this plan out loud. “Yeah, I guess Ben thought it would be a good way to, like, ‘break the ice’ or whatever. Plus, I think he kinda wants someone there as moral support. I don’t think he’s used to asking people out in… normal ways, if you know what I mean.”

That made Evie giggle. God, she had such a cute laugh. “Trust me, I know. I was literally right next to you when he asked you out. But anyway,” she grabbed Mal’s arm to punctuate her thought, “I’m super down for this. We’ll be there for Ben, and we’ll especially be there for Carlos.” Evie released her grasp on Mal’s arm and switched to holding her hand. The warmth of her hand against Mal’s was pleasant, comforting, but painfully platonic. “Carlos is like our brother, so we have to look out for him. Ben needs to realize that he shouldn’t mess with a VK. If he hurts one VK, all of us will hurt him right back. Right?”

“Right,” Mal said, squeezing Evie’s hand.

Evie sighed happily. “I actually love that we’re doing this. It could be a lot of fun.”

At that moment, Mal wished she had the nerve to pull Evie close and hold her there, giving her a chance to gaze into her eyes before planting a soft kiss on those perfectly red lips. But instead, she just nodded. “Yeah,” she muttered, in a bit of a daze from the very thought of kissing her best friend.

“Look at us! Best friends who are also a total dream team. How did we get so lucky?”

How did Mal stop herself from screaming in that moment? And why did it have to be so hard to get through to Evie? She forced a smile. “It must’ve been fate,” she said in a joking tone, even though she meant it deep down.

She’d always meant it.

***

In addition to being a brilliant student and a talented seamstress, Evie also prided herself on being an event planner extraordinaire. It got to the point where sometimes she would even try and coordinate little details of spontaneous nights out with her friends – what everyone should wear so they wouldn’t clash, what times people were and weren’t allowed to be on their phones, things like that. Because of this, it didn’t surprise Mal at all when she came home from class to find Evie deep-cleaning and redecorating the castle in preparation for their movie night with Ben and Carlos.

Evie had her back turned to Mal for at least a solid two minutes: she dusted the candlesticks above the fireplace, stopped to inspect them for any leftover dust, then went to the closet to dig around for candles. When she finally turned away from the closet door, she nearly rammed right into Mal.

Only inches apart, they both flinched and stared at each other for a moment. Instead of saying “Sorry” or “Excuse me,” or even looking startled, Evie lit up. “M, there you are! I need your help with something.” She held up the two sets of candles she’d just dug out of the closet, one white set and one green set. “Which candles are better for the date? I’m worried the green ones are gonna blend in with the woods outside, but the white ones kinda feel too church-y.”

Mal frowned. It made her sad that Evie was acknowledging this movie night as a date, but she didn’t know it was supposed to be a double date. “Um, honestly, I don’t think Ben or Carlos will notice what kind of candles you have out. We’re gonna be watching a movie.”

Based on the look Evie gave Mal, one would think Mal had suggested that they burn down all of Sherwood Forest. “But candles are romantic! As the hostesses, it’s our job to set the mood. Now, which color? The green or the white?” She held the candles up again, raising her eyebrows in insistence.

“Fine. The green,” Mal said. “They bring out your eyes.”

“You say that about everything,” Evie laughed. She turned away from Mal to put the green candles in their candlesticks.

“I _mean_ it about everything. You have beautiful eyes.”

“Pfft, stop it. You’re gonna make me blush.”

Yes, this was good. Mal was about to continue, hoping to make a little bit of progress with Evie, when someone knocked on the door. The knock wasn’t loud, but it still made Mal jump just because it was unexpected.

Going back to her dusting, Evie craned her neck toward the door. “Could you get that, M? I’ve got my hands tied over here.”

“Yeah, no prob.” Mal answered the door and was surprised to see Ben was already there. “Oh, hey. You’re here early,” she said to him.

Ben let himself in. “I hope you don’t mind. I was thinking maybe I could help you guys set up, or maybe make a snack run or something?”

The sound of Ben’s voice prompted Evie to stop what she was doing and do a dramatic half-twirl to face him. “Ben!” she exclaimed. “That’s nice of you, but Mal and I got it covered.” She leaned in closer as if telling a secret. “Don’t worry. Mal told me everything,” she squealed through a bright white smile.

Eyebrows shooting up, Ben looked at Mal. “Everything, huh?” His tone and face were sending Mal the nonverbal message of, _Does that mean you told Evie how you feel about her?_

By way of answering Ben, Mal played his question off. “Yeah. About you and Carlos. That’s what this whole date is about, right?” She flashed him a challenging look.

Ben’s mouth hung open as he tried to process Mal’s words, but Evie thankfully interrupted. “Right!” Evie shouted, jumping up and down like a little kid. “Oh, this is so exciting.”

“Yeah, who knows what the night will bring?” Ben joked, his eyes still watching Mal.

Mal punched him in the shoulder.

The three of them continued prepping (“prepping” as in Mal and Ben watching Evie scurry all over the castle to fix up minor decorating details) until they heard the front door open. The sound made Ben freeze – he knew it had to be Carlos, and even though Mal had spent the last 45 minutes hyping him up, he was still petrified.

Mal, Evie, and Ben’s eyes all watched the door. Ben inhaled sharply through his teeth, silently telling himself to not be a nervous wreck this whole time. Carlos entered without knocking, followed closely by an unexpected guest:

Jay.

Ben should’ve expected Carlos to bring Jay along – those two may as well have been conjoined twins. But he hadn’t, and he feared that Jay might somehow mess things up. What if Carlos was so distracted by Jay that he hardly noticed Ben? Or what if Jay got too protective and wouldn’t let Ben near Carlos? It sounded crazy, but Ben knew how these four were – they’d readily take a bullet for each other, no questions asked. He stood up, suddenly having no idea what to do with his hands. After a little bit of fidgeting with his ring, he settled for putting his hands in his pockets.

Carlos and Jay both greeted Ben with a head nod. “What up, Benny!” Jay exclaimed.

Behind Ben, Mal loudly said, “Jay! I didn’t know you were coming too.”

Jay grinned. “Oh, as if I’d miss movie night with the squad. C’mon.”

Yep. At this rate, Jay was probably going to steal the show.

Sweet, freckled face curling into a smile, Carlos looked eagerly at Mal as he and Jay plopped down on the couch. “So, what movie are we watching tonight? My vote goes to Shrek.”

Evie scoffed. “Carlos, you always want to watch Shrek.”

“We are not watching Shrek again,” Mal added.

Ben tried to mumble something about how he’d be fine with watching Shrek, but Jay talked over him. “Shrek! Shrek! Shrek!” he chanted.

Carlos joined in. “Shrek! Shrek! Shrek! Shrek! Shrek!”

“We are not watching Shrek!” Mal repeated, screaming over their ridiculous chant.

They stopped chanting. Carlos leaned back on the couch. “Fine, compromise,” he started. “Let’s watch Shrek 2.” 

“No!” Evie and Mal yelled in unison.

The four bickered like that for a while longer, going back and forth between different animated movies, superhero movies, and musicals. By the time they picked a movie, they were already mostly done with the popcorn Evie had made, so they settled in to watch Guardians of the Galaxy. They all crammed themselves on the couch, the VKs all leaning against each other in a big cuddle puddle while Ben sat on the arm of the couch. He didn’t have any siblings or first cousins, and the only people he’d ever been close enough with to be that physically affectionate were girls he’d dated. It was something he’d had to learn from his girlfriends, and the concept of non-romantic affection was kind of foreign and uncomfortable to him.

As the opening sequence of the movie started and Star Lord danced around some faraway planet shooting things while listening to classic rock, Evie, on the far end of the couch opposite of Ben, perked her head up from where it had been resting on Mal’s shoulder. “Ben, why don’t you join us? Get comfy. It’s a movie night, after all!”

All four VKs turned their eyes away from the movie to look at Ben as he nervously ran his finger along a wrinkle in his pants. He was very aware of who was sitting right next to him, leaned against Jay: Carlos. Evie was definitely setting him up, but he had to play it cool.

Carlos patted a sliver of couch that was available. “Yeah, man. There’s still room!”

It would probably be rude to turn down that invitation.

Trying not to look as tense as he felt, Ben slid in next to Carlos, careful not to accidentally touch his chest or anything else that might make this more awkward than it already was. He prayed Carlos couldn’t feel how fast his heart was beating, especially when Carlos put an arm around Ben’s shoulders to get in a more comfortable position.

It was surprisingly comfortable snuggling up close like that, even if it made Ben uneasy. He was acutely aware of every movement Carlos made, every breath he took. The way he smelled. The feeling of Carlos’s arm against the back of Ben’s neck. Was this heaven or hell?

“Wow, you’re warm,” Carlos commented at one point.

Getting the sense that everyone in the room had seen the movie before and wouldn’t mind if they talked, Ben replied. “Heh. Thanks. Um, how’s your Animal Crossing island?”

The glow of the movie screen lit up Carlos’s smile as if it were intentional. “Oh, it rules. I just got the terraforming tool so I’m working on moving all my cliffs and rivers around, and K.K. Slider is coming tomorrow! I think I’m gonna ask him to play Go K.K. Rider.”

Ben was going to have to learn more about Animal Crossing if he was going to keep up with Carlos.

After all the mistakes he’d made with Mal, Ben knew better than to throw around the word “love” too soon in a relationship. Such a move was way too brash and could set a new relationship off on the wrong foot. Still, after being pressed up against Carlos for all of Guardians of the Galaxy, Ben didn’t want to wait another minute to tell Carlos how he felt. He had to be bold.

He got up off the couch, then extended a hand to help Carlos up.

“Thanks,” Carlos said, accepting the help. But even when Carlos was off the couch and standing firmly on his feet, Ben didn’t let go of his hand. He wasn’t holding on too tightly, but Carlos still gave him a curious look. Lord, he hoped he wasn’t acting too weird about this.

“So, Carlos,” Ben started, his voice cracking, “I, um, really like you. Will you go out with me?” The words came out awkward and chunky, like he was throwing them up.

Evie, standing behind Carlos and watching Ben, inadvertently let out a squeal of delight.

Carlos, unfortunately, didn’t have the same reaction. Stunned, he gave Ben a wide-eyed look that reminded him of the first time Carlos had met Dude – how terrified he’d looked before running away from the tiny, friendly mutt. “Uh,” Carlos uttered, then he took off running, nearly dislocating Ben’s arm in the process of getting out of the hand-holding. He ran out the door like he was being chased.

Standing there baffled, Ben looked at Mal. “Did I do something wrong?” he asked her.

“Well, you freaked him out. So yeah,” Mal offered.

“That’s not his fault!” Evie butted in. “Sometimes Carlos scares easily. So what?”

“So… did I blow it?” Ben asked the girls.

But Jay was the one to respond, giving Ben his serious-older-brother look that Ben had seen him use on all three of the other VKs at various points. “I don’t know, but he’s probably headed back to our dorm. I’ll go talk to him,” said Jay.


	2. Chapter 2

Before Jay even turned his key in the door, he heard rustling on the other side. He opened the door to find Carlos digging through his desk drawer, looking for something. Carlos was also visibly shaking, either from anxiety, withdrawals, or both, and he didn’t seem to notice Jay entering.

“Hey,” said Jay.

Finally noticing Jay, Carlos paused his frantic search to look at him. His eyes were wide like those of a petrified rabbit. “Jay,” he uttered, panting, “did the King of Auradon really just ask me out?”

Jay took a few steps closer to his roommate. “ _Ben_ asked you out, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yes, Ben. The King. King Ben.” Carlos was getting testy. “God, I need a smoke.”

The son of chain-smoking Cruella De Vil, Carlos was born with a nicotine addiction. He used to smoke on the Isle, and back then Jay would even steal cigarettes for him when he had the chance. Now Jay was helping him quit, but things like anxiety spikes always made him desperate for a cigarette. “You don’t need a smoke, Carlos,” said Jay. “Lie down.”

Carlos shot Jay a dirty look, but he did as he was told. He lay belly-up on his bed, and Jay stood there at his bedside.

“Good. Now look at me,” said Jay. Carlos did. “Take a deep breath.” Carlos did, but he was still shaking. “Where are your patches?”

“I don’t want a patch,” Carlos growled.

“You don’t want a smoke, either. Where are they?”

Scowling in an I-know-you’re-right-but-I-hate-it way, Carlos pointed to his bedside table. Jay opened the bottom drawer and dug around until he found a small box of clear nicotine patches. He stuck one on Carlos’s arm for him.

“There. Now, why don’t we go on a nug run?”

For Jay and Carlos, “nug run” meant nothing more than a late-night trip to McDonald’s, but it never failed to boost their moods. Jay had also found that it was helpful to get Carlos some food when he was craving a cigarette. They hopped on Jay’s moped, Jay in front while Carlos held onto him in the back, and headed toward the nearby McDonald’s that was open late.

They arrived at McDonald’s and got their chicken nuggets with fries and drinks (Carlos wanted a chocolate shake, but the ice cream machine was broken). The first bite into that warm, crispy, golden chicken instantly made Carlos feel better, and he smiled at Jay. Jay smiled back. He felt lucky to have a friend like that, a friend who supported him but also loved him enough to tell him “no” when necessary. Carlos would probably be a wreck without him.

Eating a whole chicken nugget in one bite, Jay asked Carlos, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“It,” of course, being Ben. Carlos took a shaky breath. “I dunno, Jay. This is just so freaky. Ben’s the King, and he’s also Mal’s ex.”

“How do you feel about him?” Jay asked with an innocent shrug.

How did Carlos feel about Ben? He’d thought about it the whole ride there, hoping the cool night air would give some clarity. “What’s there to say? Ben got us off the Isle. He helped me make the tourney team and believed in me when nobody else did. He introduced me to Dude and helped me get over my fear of dogs.”

Jay took a sip of his Coke. “That’s all good, but you know that doesn’t mean you owe him anything, right?” Carlos gave Jay a confused look, not quite following what he was saying, so Jay elaborated. “He did all that stuff because he _wanted_ to do it. Not because he expected you to date him.”

“Oh, yeah. of course.” Carlos shook his head. “But Ben’s also a great guy.” He couldn’t get Ben’s face out of his head, handsome even when he was nervous. The way he’d held Carlos’s hand and asked him out wasn’t quite like a fairy tale, especially since Carlos darted off afterwards, but it was oddly dreamy. Ben had a big heart, he was brave, honest, and generous. “Can I tell you something I haven’t told anyone yet?”

Jay put down his cup, giving Carlos a serious head nod. “Of course, bro.”

Playing with one of his fries and breaking it in half, Carlos said, “You know how I’m not planning on going to college right after graduation?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I don’t really want to go to college at all,” he explained. “I’ve been thinking about applying for the Royal Guard instead.” He ate the broken fry he’d been playing with.

Jay’s face lit up. “That’s so cool!” Jay was going to college on a sports scholarship, and Mal and Evie were also planning on going to college, but this was the first time Carlos had disclosed to anyone what he wanted to do after graduation. He was a little embarrassed about it, but it made him happy that Jay was supportive of his choice. “I think you’d be great at that.”

“Heh. Thanks.” He dunked a chicken nugget in honey mustard. “I’m kinda realizing, though, that the main reason I want to be on the Royal Guard is so that I can stay close to Ben. Being around Ben makes me happy.”

Is that what love felt like?

***

Back at Evie’s castle, Ben, Evie, and Mal had all tried calling both Carlos and Jay. Neither had picked up for any of them. The three sat on the couch, staring at their phones in hopes of some sign of life.

“Is this gonna make things weird between me and Carlos?” Ben asked, puncturing the silence.

Evie looked up from her phone, putting a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Of course not.”

But Mal gave a more honest answer. “It’s too soon to say,” she said, eyes still pointed toward her phone screen but glazed over in a way that she couldn’t read anything without refocusing.

Evie shot Mal a dirty look, but Mal knew she was right. Turning her attention back to Ben, Evie said to him, “It’s getting late, and this is getting us nowhere. Why don’t you head home? Mal or I will text you if we hear anything from Jay or Carlos.”

“Okay, sounds good,” Ben sighed, standing up. “Goodnight, ladies. Thanks for all your help.” With that, Ben ambled somberly out the door.

When the door shut behind Ben, Evie put her phone down. “Tonight really didn’t go as planned, did it?”

Mal wished she could say, _You have no idea._ This was supposed to be the start of two new relationships, and instead it turned into a night of Mal and Evie trying to calm down Ben so he wouldn’t do something stupid like chase after Carlos and freak him out even more. “Yeah. For a Royal, Ben really sucks at the whole romance thing.”

Evie snorted. “Yeah. Maybe I should’ve coached him on asking somebody out before the party started.”

“Oh, yeah? I wasn’t aware that you were an authority on asking people out,” Mal teased.

“You know it, girl,” replied Evie with a wink.

“Okay, smartie. Show me how you would’ve done it, then.”

Clearly amused by the challenge, Evie sat up. “Well, since you asked,” she said, “the first thing Ben did wrong was make Carlos uncomfortable before he even started talking. You always want to ask someone out at a time when they’re comfortable.”

Noted.

“The second thing Ben did wrong was that he brought it up out of nowhere. It’s best to prompt the question at least a little. I probably would’ve said that I had something important to ask him first so that I didn’t completely blindside him.”

Interesting.

“And the last thing he messed up is that he totally wasn’t acting like himself. He got all nervous and just spilled his guts, and you know how being around nervous people makes Carlos extra anxious. Carlos is Ben’s friend. Ben should’ve been able to take a deep breath, look him in the eyes, and just ask him.”

It sounded so simple when Evie put it that way, Mal wanted to try it for herself. “All right then. Evie, are you comfortable right now?”

Evie looked at her funny. “Of course I am. I’m hanging out at home with my best friend.”

“Okay. I have something important to ask you.”

“What is it?” Evie asked, leaning in as if Mal was about to tell her a secret.

Mal took a deep breath and looked Evie in the eyes. Now was as good of a moment as any. “Will you go out with me?” she asked, keeping her tone even but as sincere as possible.

An open-mouthed smile lit up Evie’s whole face. “You got it!” she said. “See, if Ben had just done that, he and Carlos would totally be dating right now.” She got up. “Maybe Ben could learn a thing or two from you about romance.” With that, she headed toward her bedroom.

What? How could Evie not understand Mal asking her out as bluntly as possible? “Wait,” Mal called. Evie stopped and turned, her head tilted and waiting for Mal to say something. Mal wanted to tell her that she meant what she’d just said, that she actually wanted to go out with Evie, but she lost her nerve again. “Goodnight,” she said instead.

Smiling sweetly, Evie replied, “Goodnight, M.”

Evie was beautiful, even when she was pinning Mal to the friendzone.

The moment she heard Evie’s bedroom door close, she got a text. It was from Carlos.

_Carlos: hey sorry I didn’t pick up earlier. I’m okay. Jay and I are on a nug run_

_Carlos: also… weird question but would you be mad if I dated your ex?_

_Mal: glad you’re okay! and no, you have my blessing to date Ben if you want to_

_Carlos: thanks Mal_ ❤️

_Carlos: so one more question. any advice on going out with the king???_

Mal laughed to herself. At least one of them was having success in their love life.

_Mal: work on your table manners and you’ll be fine_

***

The next morning, Carlos and Jay were eating lunch outside at a picnic table with Dude when something caught Jay’s eye.

“Carlos,” Jay said, putting down his sandwich to smack Carlos on the shoulder from across the table, “look. Ben’s over there.”

Turning to look where Jay was pointing, Carlos inhaled sharply. There was Ben, standing far enough away that there was, thankfully, no way he could hear them. He was talking to one of his servants whose name Carlos couldn’t remember. Carlos turned back toward Jay, hoping nobody saw him watching Ben. “What should I do? Should I go talk to him?”

Jay nodded encouragingly. “Yeah. He’s right there. Go for it.”

Carlos took another glance in Ben’s direction. “I don’t think I can. It’s not the right time. We should just go before he notices us.”

“Too late. He’s already looking at you.”

Crap. Carlos wanted to turn around and take another peek to see if Jay was right, but he couldn’t risk making awkward eye contact with Ben.

Putting his front paws against Carlos’s seat on the picnic table bench, Dude spoke up. “Go talk to him! And take me with you, I’ve gotta see this.” He eagerly wagged his tail, making a face a lot like the one he made when he begged for food.

“Absolutely not,” Carlos replied. “You’re staying with Jay. The last thing I need is for you to blurt out something weird when I’m having this important conversation with my friend.” He got up, motivated by Jay’s encouragement and Dude’s insistence.

Dude got his paws off Carlos’s seat, smiling. “I think you mean soon-to-be-boyfriend.”

Carlos rolled his eyes. Dude was definitely picking up on some of Evie’s sass.

He headed in Ben’s direction, noticing the scenery around him. It was early fall, and the leaves on the trees were just starting to change color. The sky was blue, the grass a lush green. Another day in Paradise, Carlos thought. He had a feeling he’d remember the weird details of this day for a long time.

As Carlos got closer, Ben noticed him approaching and waved his worker away, saying something hurried like, “I’ll get back with you later.” A half-smile graced his face. “Hey, Carlos,” he said.

“Hey, Ben,” said Carlos, stopping an appropriate distance from Ben. “Um…”

“I’m sorry about last night,” Ben interjected.

Carlos blinked. “ _You’re_ sorry? You’re not the one who ran out the door.”

Playing with his ring, Ben said, “No, but I freaked you out. My timing was awful, and I was a wreck. You can just forget it ever happened.”

“Oh,” said Carlos with a frown. “But I was about to tell you yes.”

“Really?” asked Ben, his handsome face lighting up with hope.

“Yeah, I want to go out with you.” Carlos paused, glancing at the grass stain on his right shoe. “I mean, that is, if you still want to go out with me,” he added sheepishly.

“Yes! Of course. Nothing would make me happier.” Ben pulled Carlos in for a tight hug, but one that didn’t last too long – probably cut short so as not to draw too much attention. “Let’s go on a date. A real one. When are you free?”

“All weekend, I guess, but I know you probably have King stuff to do –”

“No, I can make time. How about later this afternoon? Maybe we could go on a nice walk and then get dinner.”

This surprised Carlos. “Uh, sure!” he said.

Back at the picnic table, Jay had snuck a photo of Ben and Carlos hugging. He sent it to his group chat with Mal, Evie, and Carlos, including a text with it:

_Jay: new royal couple???_ 😉

The girls flooded the group chat with reaction gifs, each one more ridiculous than the last. A couple minutes later, Jay watched Carlos walk back toward the picnic table. Ben headed in the opposite direction, led by the worker he’d just shooed off. Carlos checked his phone and laughed.

_Carlos: I hate you guys_ 🤣

***

That afternoon, Ben took Carlos for a walk around the enchanted lake near campus. Since there was nobody else around, they held hands as they walked and talked (their new relationship wasn’t public yet – the only people who knew about it were the other VKs – and they wanted to keep it that way for at least the first couple of days).

“Do you know how to swim?” Ben asked, sitting at the edge of the water with Carlos doing the same. He knew that Mal and Jay couldn’t swim, so he didn’t want to assume that Carlos could.

“Eh. I can doggy paddle, but I’m not really that into it,” Carlos responded. He took off his shoes and dipped his feet in the water. “Plus, I’ve kinda got this thing going on, which makes it harder.” He lifted up his shirt just enough that Ben could see the white binder he wore underneath.

Ben was surprised, not only by this news but also by how casually Carlos brought it up. “Huh. How did I not know that about you?” They’d known each other for a year now, and somehow this was the first time Ben had heard about it.

Carlos winced at Ben. “That’s not a deal-breaker, is it?”

“No, of course not.”

“Oh, good. I know some of you Auradonians have a weird thing about gender.”

“A weird thing about gender? What do you mean?”

Carlos looked pensively at his bare feet, kicking them back and forth in the clear lake water. “Well, back on the Isle, people didn’t make such a big deal about that kind of thing. It didn’t matter so much what you looked like or what you wore, or even what you had under your clothes. If you said you were a boy then people would respect you as a boy, if you said you were a girl then people would respect you as a girl, and same if you said that you were both or neither or somewhere in between. And it didn’t really matter so much who you had feelings for, either, unless they were part of a rival gang. Here in Auradon, though… I mean, take Jane for example.” At that, Carlos stopped himself and pressed his palm against his forehead. “Wait. Crap. Sorry, I shouldn’t’ve brought up my ex on our first date.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind,” Ben encouraged, putting a hand on top of Carlos’s free hand. It was warm from the sunlight. “Mal told me that it was tough for you when Jane moved to Far Far Away with her mom, so I’m fine if you want to talk about her.”

Full lips curling into a smile, Carlos locked eyes with Ben and continued. “Okay. Yeah. I was just gonna say, Jane got kind of upset at me when she found out that I was trans and non-binary. She asked me why it took two months of our relationship for me to tell her, but I honestly didn’t know that it was so important to bring it up. That wasn’t something I was used to, as a kid from the Isle.”

Ben laughed through his nose. “I always knew Auradon had a few things we could learn from you Isle kids.”

The joy in Carlos’s face at that moment was enough to make Ben want to cry happy tears.

Not wanting to be seen eating at a restaurant together, they bought a pizza and ate it outside on a park bench. When there was only one slice left, Carlos asked Ben, “Do you want the last slice?”

Ben looked at it, then looked back up at Carlos. “We could split it Lady and the Tramp style,” he joked.

He expected to get a laugh out of Carlos from that, but instead, Carlos crinkled his nose in shock. “Lady and the Tramp style? What is that? Is it, like, a sex thing?”

“No, no,” Ben said, reddening a little. “It’s a joke. You remember that part in Lady and the Tramp where they’re eating the spaghetti –”

“I’ve never seen that movie,” Carlos interrupted.

If it could’ve, Ben’s jaw would’ve hit the ground. “You, Carlos ‘I Love Dogs’ De Vil, have never seen Lady and the Tramp?” Carlos shook his head. Ben gave Carlos an exaggeratedly horrified gasp. “Well, then we have to watch it. Tonight. Let’s go to my place.”

***

They watched the movie together, and then Ben walked Carlos back to his dorm. The night was dark and quiet, the only light coming from the dorm building and the perfect half-moon.

“What did you think of Lady and the Tramp?” Ben asked, his knuckles brushing against Carlos’s as they walked. Neither of them went to grab the other’s hand, and that was okay. It was kind of nice just to walk together.

By way of responding to Ben’s question, Carlos pulled out his best impression of the Italian restaurant owner from the movie, belting out, “Thiiiiis is the niiiiight, what a beauuuuuutiful niiiight…”

Ben joined in the singing with an equally goofy voice, “And they caaaaall it _Beeeeella Noooootteeeee_ …” They erupted into a laughing fit, no longer able to contain it or sing through it.

When they calmed down, Ben looked up. “It really is a beautiful night, isn’t it?” he mused.

Carlos looked up too. The sky was so clear that the stars and the moon looked extra vibrant, but he had trouble appreciating it. This whole day had felt surreal, like he was in a simulation. He’d had to stop himself a few times and remember who he was with: Ben may be his friend, but Ben was also the King. How did the King of Auradon have any romantic interest in a guy like Carlos?

But at the same time, there was no way Ben could be faking it. Carlos had seen Ben try to fake romance, and Ben had a horrible poker face. What they felt for each other had to be real, because it wouldn’t’ve felt like this otherwise.

Carlos looked at Ben, his face aglow in moonlight like a forest spirit, and his doubt crumbled. Who cared if Ben was the King and Carlos was just some kid who didn’t even plan on going to college? Being with Ben made him happy, so that’s what he was going to do.

Lost in his admiration of Ben’s face, Carlos almost tripped on the steps to his dorm building. Ben, reaching out ready to catch Carlos, said, “Woah, careful!”

“Thanks,” Carlos laughed. Ben followed him to the top of the steps, and just like that, their first date was over. “Today was fun,” said Carlos, even though it made him feel a bit like a character in a cheesy romance movie. He faced Ben, wondering what he should do next.

“Yeah. Let’s do it again soon,” Ben replied, his voice sounding tired but also content.

Before Ben got the chance to turn and leave, something came over Carlos. Something that made him lean in and give Ben the tiniest peck on the cheek. It was quick, but Carlos still saw Ben’s cheeks turn pink. His were probably doing the same thing. “Well, goodnight,” he said, flashing a smile before darting inside.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Carlos woke up to five missed calls and two texts from Ben. He groaned. If Ben was already getting this needy, they were going to need to have a serious talk.

He checked the texts:

_Ben: please call me when you can_

_Ben: it’s kind of urgent_

What did “kind of urgent” mean? Normally, Carlos would’ve looked to see if Jay was still asleep before making a phone call, but he was still half-asleep himself, so he just sat up partially in bed and called Ben back.

Ben answered after the very first ring. “Carlos! Finally!”

Carlos rubbed his eyes, still struggling to wake up. “Babe, what’s wrong?” Wait. Did he seriously just call Ben “babe”? He must be extra tired. “It’s too early for this.”

“I’m sorry, but this is urgent,” said Ben, letting out a sharp sigh. “My parents found out about us.”

Carlos jolted up straight in bed, his heart feeling like it was bouncing around loosely in his ribcage. “What?” Were Ben’s parents going to come after him? Was he going to have to flee the country? Change his identity? Join a witness protection program? Could Ben, as King, protect Carlos from his parents, the former King and Queen?

“They want to meet you,” Ben added.

All the panicked thoughts swirling in Carlos’s head stopped, replaced with confusion. “Ben, what are you talking about? They’ve met me multiple times. Like, I’m pretty sure I talked to your dad last week.”

Slowly, as if thinking through the logic himself, Ben said, “I know, but this’ll be their first time meeting you as my boyfriend. It may seem weird, but it’s a Royal thing. They want a chance to formally meet you in this context before our relationship becomes public.”

None of this was making any sense. “But Mal didn’t have to do that! This doesn’t seem fair.”

“Mal was… uh… a special case. For a lot of reasons. Namely, the love spell she put on me. But even then, I did technically formally introduce her to my parents on Family Day last year. You know, before everything fell apart.”

Carlos wanted nothing more in that moment than to throw his phone against the wall and curl back up in bed. This was all too much for a Sunday morning. “Okay. Fine. I’ll _formally_ meet your parents. What do I have to do, pass some kind of trial?”

“Not unless you consider lunch a trial,” answered Ben. “Can you be here at noon?”

“Noon _today?_ ” Carlos checked the time. “That’s only in a couple hours! I don’t have any time to get ready!”

“I’m sorry! That’s why I tried to call you earlier. My parents insisted on today, just to make sure they could meet you before the world inevitably finds out. It’s hard to keep secrets when there are constantly eyes on you.”

Realizing he probably didn’t have much of a choice, Carlos conceded. Besides, he knew that if he wanted to be with Ben then he’d have to deal with Belle and Adam eventually, so he may as well get it out of the way. “Fine. I’ll see you at noon.”

“Thank you, Carlos! I’ll make it up to you somehow, I promise.”

Carlos had to stop himself from saying “I love you” into the phone. He’d really hoped to take things slow with Ben, not jumping too early into kisses and “I love yous,” but meeting his parents after their first date was already messing things up. Still, Carlos said a simple goodbye and hung up without using the L word.

The moment he hung up, he heard Jay roll over in bed and groan. “You are so. Loud,” said Jay in a half-asleep baritone.

“Sorry man,” said Carlos, “kind of an emergency.” He got up and stumbled toward his dresser. “Ugh. What would you wear to lunch with Belle and Adam?”

“That’s an Evie question,” Jay replied flatly, rolling over so that his back was facing Carlos. He clearly intended on going back to sleep, which meant Carlos was getting zero help from him this morning.

***

Evie paced around the front door to her castle. “A fashion emergency the morning _after_ his first date with Ben? He didn’t ask me for my help for his first date, so what could he possibly need today?”

“A disguise, maybe?” Mal joked. She checked herself out in one of the mirrors hanging in the foyer. Evie looked a lot more put together than she did, having thrown on a perfectly coordinated outfit and a full face of makeup the moment she’d gotten a text from Carlos asking if he could come over. Mal, on the other hand, hadn’t even bothered to wash her face. It was just Carlos, anyway.

Plus, the only person she was even remotely trying to impress had seen her on plenty of Sunday mornings.

Never mind that she was still at a total loss as to how she could get through to Evie.

“This has got to be related to Ben, right? Oh, I can’t wait to hear about their first date. I bet it went great,” Evie enthused, though she still seemed a bit worried.

One of the things Mal loved about Evie was how much she cared about her friends. She was a bit of a classic older sister type in that way, even to Mal. Mal couldn’t help but smile to herself as she watched Evie fuss and worry about what Carlos might need. It was charming and a bit funny to watch.

Mal and Evie heard a key turn in the front door, and soon in walked Carlos, walking Dude on a leash. Both were panting as if they’d ran all the way there.

“Carlos!” Evie exclaimed. “What’s the emergency?”

Carlos started, “Ben’s—”

But Dude interrupted. “Hey! Would ya get me off this leash first?” When the humans in the room stared at him blankly, he added, “Please?”

Grumbling, Carlos let the little mutt off his leash. As Dude ambled up to Evie with the clear expectation of head pats, Carlos continued. “Ben’s parents found out we’re dating, and they want to have lunch with me. Today. At noon.” His eyes were wide like those of a trapped cat.

Evie’s interest was piqued. “Wow,” she said, picking up Dude, “meeting the parents already? Your first date must’ve been legendary.”

Carlos’s cheeks went pink. Mal butted in before Evie could embarrass him anymore. “Haven’t Belle and Adam already met you, though?”

“Not, like, formally, I guess? I dunno, it’s a weird Royal thing,” said Carlos, crinkling his nose. “I just have no idea what I should wear, and I don’t wanna embarrass myself.”

“Say no more,” Evie said, scratching Dude behind the ears. “I’ve already got a couple things in mind. Step into my studio.”

Evie’s studio was best described as “organized chaos.” There were half-finished garments, seemingly random materials, sketches, and tools strewn all throughout the windowed room, but Evie always knew exactly where everything was.

Handing Dude off to Mal, Evie gestured toward the floor-length mirror and pedestal on one end of the studio in a silent command for Carlos to stand there. As Carlos got up on the pedestal, Evie put her knuckle on her chin in thought. “Okay, this is going to be a bit of a challenge because most of the clothes I’ve made for you are red, and we can’t put you in red.”

“Why not?” Carlos asked, examining himself in the mirror. He was wearing a red track jacket. “Red’s my favorite color, and I think it looks good on me.”

Dude whispered to Mal, “Do I look good in red?”

Unsure how to respond, Mal replied, “Sure.” Dude was a dog, he looked fine in anything.

“Think about it, Carlos,” said Evie, sifting through a rack of finished garments. “Ben and his parents are probably going to wear blue and yellow. Red would clash with literally both those colors! We can’t have that.”

Carlos scratched his head. “Evie, you’re literally wearing all three of those colors right now,” he protested.

“Wrong,” said Evie, pointing to the gold bracelet she was wearing. “First of all, this is gold, not yellow. There’s a big difference. Second, I’m wearing blue with red and gold _accents,_ not just blue, gold, and red.” Evie appeared to find something she liked on the rack and grabbed it. “Oh, this is perfect! I’ve been saving it for a special occasion.”

Evie held up the garment in question. It was a hand-knit soft pink sweater, one that Mal knew had taken her hours to make. Carlos gave the sweater a skeptical look.

“Pink? Really? I haven’t worn pink since I was, like, ten,” he said.

“Come _on,_ I thought you wanted my help. I made this sweater with you in mind, you know!” Evie held out the sweater as if she expected Carlos to take it, but he didn’t. He just kept looking at it as if it might bite him.

Still holding Dude, Mal sighed. “That stupid sweater took her five hours to knit. At least try it on.”

Dude piped in again. “Dang, that’s like a couple days in dog time.”

Carlos’s eyes widened in shock. He looked from Mal to Evie, who was still trying to hand him the sweater. “That took five hours to make?”

“Yeah. Knitting takes time,” Evie deflected. “Now try it on.” At that, Carlos finally took the sweater from her.

“Thanks,” he stammered. He pulled the sweater on over his head. Mal noticed immediately how well it fit him – Evie clearly wasn’t lying when she said that she’d made it with him in mind, because it looked like it was tailor-made for him. Carlos examined his reflection for a moment before saying, “It’s nice, I’m just not sure if pink is really my color.”

Evie got up on the pedestal behind Carlos and took him by the shoulders. The gesture reminded Mal of the way Evie had helped her prepare for her first date – doing her makeup, helping her pick out clothes, and giving her a loving pep talk. “Trust me, pink is a great color on you,” she said, giving his shoulders an affectionate squeeze. “If it helps, you can think of it as light red.”

“Hm, I do like red,” Carlos thought out loud as a closed-mouth smile formed on his face. “And this is way better than my other option of a t-shirt and cargo shorts.”

“Infinitely better,” Mal and Evie said at the same time.

Hugging Carlos from behind, Evie let out a little squeal. “Oh, I’m so excited for you! You’re already at the meet-the-parents stage in your relationship. At this rate, you could have a ring by spring!”

Carlos froze. “An engagement ring?” He looked at his left hand as if imagining a ring on it.

“That’s right,” said Evie, letting go of him. “And a year or two after that, you could even have a Royal bun in the oven.”

“A _baby?!_ ” Carlos exclaimed. He started to shake with anxiety. “Oh God, I’m not ready to be a dad,” he stuttered.

That was Mal’s cue to step in. “Cut it out, E. You’re scaring him.” She handed Dude to Carlos, hoping that the pup’s presence would comfort him a little.

Evie shook her head at Mal. “Am I wrong? You know Royals like to move fast. I mean, Chad and Audrey are already engaged and planning their whole life together.”

“No, I can’t do this,” said Carlos. “I need to call this whole thing off. I’m not cut out to be a consort. Where’s my phone? I need to call Ben.”

Giving Carlos an affectionate lick on the chin, Dude said, “Oh, don’t break up with Ben. I like him. He smells good!”

“I’m not gonna have a baby with just anybody who smells good, Dude!” Carlos said, unintentionally raising his voice. “Everything was so simple when Ben and I were just friends. I didn’t think things would become this complicated now that we’re dating.”

“They’re not becoming more complicated,” Mal said. At that, Carlos turned to look at her. “Evie’s got it wrong. Ben’s the kind of guy who will listen to you if you say you want to take things slow, but you have to set that expectation early on because that’s not what he’s used to. That’s all.” Seeing that he still wasn’t calm, she added, “Take a deep breath.”

Carlos did.

“Just take it one step at a time. Go to lunch with Ben and his parents. Remember our table manners lesson from Remedial Goodness class and you’ll be fine.”

“Right,” said Carlos. “It’s funny, but you two are like the healthy, loving parents I never had.”

Mal made awkward eye contact with Evie and immediately broke it to stare at her shoes. They did act like a couple in a lot of ways, didn’t they?

After Carlos left, Evie turned to Mal with a pensive look on her pretty face. “I don’t get why Carlos freaked out about the whole marrying Ben thing,” she said. “I really thought he’d be more excited.”

Taking a deep breath to keep from raising her voice in frustration, Mal replied, “Saying stuff like that to Carlos puts a lot of pressure on him, E. Not everyone’s ready to get engaged at age seventeen, or even think about getting engaged.”

“They’re not?” Evie asked, taking a seat on the couch. “I’ve been thinking about getting married for as long as I can remember.”

“Not everyone was raised by your mother,” said Mal. “I mean, while your mom told you to go and marry a perfect prince, my mom always taught me that love was weak, and Lord knows how long it took me to un-learn that.”

Then Evie asked Mal an unexpected question. “What do you think about marriage, then?”

Mal swore she felt something punch her in the chest. What did she think about marriage? “Um, I don’t know, why do you ask?”

“Well, don’t you ever think about it?” asked Evie, a dreamy look in her eyes. “Wearing a beautiful white gown and walking down the aisle in front of all your loved ones to pronounce your dedication to your true love? Riding off to your happily ever after?” She clasped her hands, looking up as if she were praying for God to take her to that moment right now.

And for the first time in her life, Mal sat and imagined what her wedding day could be like, but she didn’t think about herself. She imagined Evie, made up like the princess she was, in an elegant white dress and a flowing lacy veil, the biggest grin imaginable on her face. She was the most beautiful thing Mal had ever seen. Mal wanted to live with Evie forever, to be the dragon that so dutifully guarded their castle and protected the treasure, the princess, inside.

“You’re thinking about it now, aren’t you?” Evie asked, interrupting Mal’s fantasy.

Mal blushed red hot. “Um—”

Evie giggled. “It’s okay,” she said, putting her hand on top of Mal’s, “it’s a good thing.” She leaned her head on Mal’s shoulder, and while Mal would usually embrace the contact, she stiffened this time. “You and I will find true love one of these days, I know it.”

Heart aching, all Mal managed to say was, “I hope you’re right.”

***

Standing in front of the giant wooden doors to Auradon Castle, Carlos felt like a flea. A flea in a super soft, handmade pink sweater and chinos. It wasn’t that he had never been there – in fact, he’d come over yesterday to watch Lady and the Tramp with Ben – but he didn’t think he’d ever be there under circumstances like these.

“One step at a time,” he told himself, repeating Mal’s advice as he lifted one brass knocker. It made more of a booming sound than a knock against the huge door.

Carlos expected a butler or some other sort of attendant to answer the knock, but instead, Ben himself opened the door. Since when did the King have to do stuff like that? To Carlos’s relief, Ben wasn’t wearing anything fancy – just a royal blue button-up and khakis, which was a more casual look than he wore on most school days – meaning that Carlos wasn’t underdressed. Ben’s gorgeous face lit up at the sight of Carlos. “Hey, thanks for coming. Come on in,” he said, holding the door open for him.

Entering the cavernous foyer, Carlos muttered a quick thank-you to Ben for holding the door. He figured this might be a good time to bring up the whole taking-it-slow thing. “So, Ben—” he started.

“I’m so glad you came,” Ben interrupted. “My parents have been hounding me all morning.” He let the door shut with a muffled boom-click behind him. “They’re gonna like you.”

“You really think so?” Carlos asked. He was fully expecting them to find some way to get Ben to stop seeing him. At the very best he thought they might _tolerate_ him, but could they actually _like_ him?

“Absolutely.” Ben put an arm around Carlos’s shoulders. “You don’t have a history of magic in your family, so they won’t think you’re dangerous.” Ben chuckled a little bit at that, but Carlos couldn’t tell how serious that comment was. It was true that he had no family ties to magic, and he probably couldn’t perform magic even if he wanted to, but did that really make him less of a threat? Wouldn’t Belle and Adam worry about Ben dating another villain kid, if nothing else than because of how it could tarnish his reputation?

Carlos looked up at the massive golden chandelier above him, wishing it would just fall on his head and end his anxieties once and for all. When it didn’t, he tried again to tell Ben that he wanted to slow down. “Hey, I’ve been thinking –”

“My parents are waiting for us in the dining room,” Ben interrupted yet again. “It’s this way.” With that, he let go of Carlos’s shoulder and grabbed his hand instead, guiding him through the castle.

They passed through a wide hallway with a right-hand wall covered in stained-glass windows, each stained glass depicting a famous Royal couple: Cinderella and Prince Charming, Tiana and Naveen, Rapunzel and Eugene, even Belle and Adam. Each was as unique and extravagant as the couples’ stories.

At the end of the hall was a window covered with a black curtain.

“Why’s that one covered?” Carlos asked as Ben led him past it.

Ben frowned, averting his eyes as if looking at the window might turn him into a frog. “That was, uh, supposed to be mine. Well, it was mine. But it’s being taken down.” He picked up his pace, leading Carlos out of the hallway.

It took Carlos a moment to realize what Ben meant by that. The covered window must have been the stained glass that Ben had designed for Mal before last year’s Cotillion. He found it a shame that they felt the need to cover it; Carlos remembered it being a beautiful piece.

This was the guy he was dating. The guy who would design a whole window for someone he’s only been dating for six months. No pressure, right?

Nerves building up, Carlos followed Ben through a hand-carved wooden door into a dining room with one of those long wood tables that he'd only ever seen in movies about rich people and royalty. It was decorated simply, appropriate for Sunday lunch, and sitting next to each other near one end of the table were Ben's parents. They didn’t look up or pause their conversation, so they must've not heard Ben and Carlos enter.

Adam, pinching the bridge of his nose under his glasses, said to Belle, “But does he understand that it's not just his future at stake here? The future of the whole kingdom depends in part on who he marries.”

“He’s only seventeen, dear,” Belle replied in a careful tone. “Just think, you and I didn’t even meet until we were in our twenties. What’s the harm in him dating whomever he wants while he’s still a teenager? That doesn’t mean he’s going to marry this boy.”

Were they talking about Ben's dating relationships while Ben was standing right there?

Ben squeezed Carlos's hand before clearing his throat. “Mom, Dad,” he spoke up, “I’d like to formally introduce you to my new boyfriend, Carlos.”

Belle and Adam looked up, wearing guilty expressions that would have been amusing if it hadn’t been for the fact that what they were saying was deeply hurtful. They stood up and played it off with all the royal grace they could manage, Belle forcing a polite smile and smoothing out her yellow dress as Adam walked around the table to shake Carlos's hand.

“Thank you so much for coming on such short notice,” said Adam as he and Carlos shook hands. The former King's hands were not only big, but he also had a startlingly strong grip.

“You’re welcome,” Carlos said, feeling small standing beside this beast of a man. Was “you’re welcome” the appropriate response? That’s what he was taught in Remedial Goodness class, but it felt weird in this situation for some reason. Maybe he was just overthinking it.

There was a pause in the conversation, just long enough to be awkward, before Adam let go of Carlos’s hand and added, “Please, have a seat. Mrs. Potts just brought out the salads.”

Keep your cool, Carlos told himself. Just follow what Ben does.

Ben pulled out a chair for Carlos and gestured for him to sit. He did so, letting Ben scoot the chair back in for him. Although he was generally uncomfortable, Carlos appreciated Ben being such a gentleman. He looked down at the underwhelming plate of greens in front of him, the napkin, the three forks, the two spoons, and the knife. This was not something he’d learned in Remedial Goodness. He’d learned things like don’t talk with your mouth full, say please and thank you, don’t play with your food, and wipe your face. He looked at Ben, who was putting his napkin on his lap, and mimicked that. Ben picked up a fork, and Carlos made sure to pick up the same fork.

“So, Carlos,” Belle started, “do you have any interest in magic or… that sort of thing?” She looked at him expectantly, with a hint of worry in her eyes.

Carlos, of course, had just taken a big bite of his salad. Knowing he shouldn’t talk with his mouth full, he tried to swallow his food before properly chewing it, and it went down hard enough to make him cough a few times. This startled Ben’s parents and made Ben reach out to try and help Carlos, but Carlos put a hand up to stop him. He regained his breath and looked up. “Heh. Sorry.” He took another breath. “But no, I’ve never tried to do magic, and I honestly don’t think I could even if I wanted to. It’s just not in my blood.”

Ben’s parents nodded with obvious relief. “That’s good,” said Adam. “You probably know how… unfortunate our family has been when it comes to magic and curses.”

Assuming that was a joke, Carlos laughed through his nose. “Are you talking about the time you got turned into a beast, the time Ben got trapped with a love spell _twice_ , or the time Ben’s ex ran around turning people into stone?” he joked.

All three sets of eyes in the room gave Carlos a blank stare. Apparently, that had offended them. Did he take the joke too far, or was that just not a joke to begin with? Panicked, he ate another mouthful of bland greens.

“Good salad,” he said, forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to talk with his mouth full.

Thankfully, Ben stepped in to break the silence. “Do you think the tourney team could make it to the finals this year?”

It was obvious that Adam was a huge sports nut by the mere look on his face when tourney was mentioned. “The team’s been doing great this year!” he exclaimed. “And your friend Jay is a real star. Charmington University’s gonna love him.”

“I’ll tell him you said that,” said Carlos, smiling politely. He looked down and realized he’d already finished his whole salad. When did that happen?

“Dad, you know Carlos is on the team too, right?” Ben asked, putting a hand on Carlos’s shoulder. “He’s an incredibly fast runner.”

Carlos felt himself blush at the compliment. Adam said, “That’s right, I forgot about that. Are you also planning on playing tourney in college?”

A handful of servants came out and quietly replaced the salad dishes with an entrée, which appeared to be chicken and rice. Didn’t kings and queens like food with flavor? Carlos stared at his food for a moment before answering Adam’s question. “Actually,” he said, “I’m not going to college.” He had no idea how to say that without it sounding disappointing.

As everyone started on their main course, Belle asked, “Oh, is that so? Then what are your post-graduation plans?”

Carlos took a bite of his chicken to stall for time, but he could feel three sets of eyes on him. The only person he’d told about his intention to join the Royal Guard was Jay, and that was before Carlos had started dating Ben. He had no idea how Ben or his parents would react to this news, or if the King’s boyfriend would even be allowed onto the Royal Guard. For a moment, he considered lying and saying he didn’t know what he wanted to do after graduation, but he knew he shouldn’t lie to his boyfriend’s parents.

After chewing and swallowing, Carlos said, “Um, well, after graduation I’ll be applying for the Royal Guard.” He hoped they didn’t notice the nervous shakiness in his voice, or the fact that he’d started bouncing his leg under the table. He could tell that Ben was staring at him, but he kept his eyes forward, looking just past Adam’s right shoulder.

“Really?” Ben exclaimed. Carlos still couldn’t look at him.

Nodding, Belle slowly said, “That’s… nice. We could always use more men on the Guard.”

“I’m not sure how that’ll work with you dating Ben, though,” Adam interjected.

“I know,” Carlos sighed.

“But we’ll figure it out,” said Ben. He put a hand on Carlos’s knee to get him to stop bouncing his leg. Carlos finally made eye contact with Ben and saw that he had the biggest, most excited smile on his face.

***

“Well, that went terribly,” Carlos said. They were finally outside of the castle and away from Ben’s parents, which meant they could talk freely again as Ben walked Carlos back to his dorm for the second time in two days.

Ben couldn’t stop thinking about Carlos wanting to join the Royal Guard. He imagined how romantic it would be to have Carlos in the castle with him, watching over him and protecting him. They could sneak away every now and again to steal a quick kiss, and when Carlos was off duty, he could stay in the castle and keep Ben company. In his mind, lunch had gone great for the sole reason that he’d learned that piece of information about his boyfriend. “No, it didn’t,” he said. “My parents like you. They really do, they’re just hard on you because they care about me. That’s what parents do sometimes.”

“Then what was it that your dad said to you in French before we left?”

Ben sucked in air through his teeth. “Uh, it’s a French saying. It loosely translates to, ‘Make sure you’re making good decisions.’” That was a white lie, but Ben didn’t have the heart to tell him what his dad had actually said, which directly translated to, “I know he’s a boy, but you still need to wear a condom.” At least his dad had the decency to say that in French so that Carlos didn’t understand it.

“Hm. I guess that’s not too bad. I was worried he was saying something mean about me,” said Carlos. “I didn’t know you knew French.”

“Yeah, my parents spoke to me in French when I was a baby.” Ben resisted the urge to grab Carlos’s hand – it was broad daylight, and while it didn’t seem like there was anyone around, Ben had learned over the years that one can never be too careful when it came to wandering eyes and sneaky paparazzi. “Do you speak any languages besides English?”

Carlos scratched the back of his neck. “Jay taught me how to speak Arabic years ago, but I can’t read or write in it.”

“Hey, that’s pretty cool though! Can you say something to me in Arabic?”

Carlos thought about it for a moment, then uttered a short Arabic sentence.

Ben blinked. “What does that mean?”

“It means, ‘that cloud looks like a foot,’” said Carlos, pointing up to the sky.

Spotting the cloud Carlos was referring to, Ben chuckled. “It does.”

After a short period of silence, Carlos said, “Hey Ben, I have to ask you something.”

Ben stopped walking, and Carlos stopped shortly after. “If it’s ‘can I kiss you,’ the answer is yes.” He leaned forward. Carlos put a hand in front of him to stop him.

A look of hurt and discomfort crossed Carlos’s freckled face. “No. Ben, I want to slow down.”

“Slow down? What do you mean?”

“I mean that if you told me three days ago that on Sunday I’d be dating the King and having lunch with his parents, I would’ve thought you were talking about someone else.” His brown eyes were deep and serious. “I like you a lot, but you’re only the second person I’ve ever dated, and with Jane, we didn’t even kiss until we’d been dating for like, two months. I know you’re the King, so none of this is going to be normal, but I need time to adjust to it.” Carlos gave Ben’s hand a gentle touch. “Would you do that for me?”

While that wasn’t what Ben wanted, he would do anything for Carlos. “Of course. We can take it as slow as you need to. We can even keep this private for a while if you want. That would mean we have to be discreet, but I’m more than willing to do that for you.”

Carlos’s full lips curled into a smile. “I’d like that.”


	4. Chapter 4

Being discreet meant that they didn’t get to spend much time together, but Ben started joining Carlos, Mal, Jay, and Evie’s table for school lunch so that he at least got to see his boyfriend on school days. He enjoyed chatting with Carlos and the other VKs, and the couple would occasionally brush hands under the table or lean against each other affectionately. They tried to make it subtle enough that nobody except those sitting at the table would notice anything odd, and it worked for almost a month.

One day, when they were sitting down for their usual lunch in the courtyard, Mal looked around at her group of friends: Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Ben. “Guys, we have to re-evaluate this.”

“Re-evaluate what?” Jay asked, throwing his long, dark hair back in a ponytail so that the wind would stop blowing it in his face.

Mal faced Ben, who was sitting across from her with Carlos at his right. “People are starting to talk. Three people have already come up to me today and asked about you, Ben.”

Ben’s eyes widened. “They found out?”

“No,” Mal groaned. “They think you and I are getting back together!” She could barely get the sentence out without a pit of dread dropping in her stomach. Ben wasn’t a bad guy, but they did not make a good couple, and that bad dating experience had made Mal realize that she never wanted to date royalty again. Unless, of course, you counted a certain blue-haired daughter of an evil queen, but that was beside the point.

“Yikes,” said Ben with a surprising lack of enthusiasm.

Evie piped in. “You know, that could actually be a good cover. Let everyone spread rumors that Mal and Ben are back together to distract them from what’s actually going on.”

“Absolutely not!” said Mal. “If you think I’m going back to a life of cameras constantly being shoved in my face and reporters asking me super intrusive questions every day, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Talking with his mouth full, Carlos said, “Mal’s right. We can’t just use her as a pawn.”

Ben scratched his chin. “Okay, so what are our options? We could do nothing and see if people figure it out on their own.”

“You could start being more affectionate in public. People are usually able to connect the dots then,” Jay offered.

“You know what?” said Carlos. “It’s been long enough. Why don’t we just tell everyone?”

Everyone at the table was surprised, especially Ben. Carlos had been the one to insist on keeping their relationship a secret for this long, but would this situation be the tipping point in him deciding to make their relationship public?

Ben asked, “Carlos, are you sure?”

Carlos shrugged with a half-smile. “I mean, yeah. We’re not gonna be able to keep this up forever, and even if we could, why would we want to?”

Their conversation was interrupted when three pirates approached their table. Without asking first, Uma, Harry, and Gil sat uncomfortably close to the VKs on the picnic table bench.

Mal knew that Uma was just doing this to get on her nerves. “Hey, we’re kinda having a private conversation here,” Mal growled at the pirates.

“What’s the matter, Mallory?” Harry lisped in his odd Scottish accent. “Are we not your friends too?”

“My real friends know that Mal isn’t short for Mallory,” Mal retorted. “It’s just Mal.”

“Whatever, Princess,” Uma said dismissively. “We’re bored, so we wanna hear what y’all are talking about.”

Before Mal got the chance to reiterate that their conversation was private, Ben spat out a lie as if he’d rehearsed it. “We’re talking about who we’re taking to homecoming,” he said. “Do you have a date yet?”

Both Harry and Gil gave Uma a pathetic “pick-me” look. Uma, either not noticing them or ignoring them, looked at Ben like he’d just said something stupid. “I thought homecoming was a casual dance. Do people still take dates?”

“Sure they do,” said Ben. “Any excuse to ask someone to a dance, people are gonna take it.”

“All right then.” Uma nodded at Mal. “Who are you taking to this sports dance?”

Mal resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I dunno, do you want to go with me?” she teased.

Uma laughed, playing with her long blue braids. “In your dreams.” She seemed to lose interest in Mal, turning to Ben instead. “What about you, Beast Boy? You got a date yet?”

In response, Ben clicked his tongue. “Not yet, but I’m gonna ask somebody. It’s still a secret, though.” Jay and Carlos snickered knowingly at that.

“Keeping secrets, Ben? That’s not very friendly of you,” said Uma.

“I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise,” Ben replied with a smirk.

“Whatever,” Uma said as she stood up. Harry and Gil stood with her. “You guys are no fun. We’re gonna go find someone else to antagonize.”

The three strutted off, and when they were safely out of earshot, Mal leaned in to her group, making firm eye contact with Carlos. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” she asked him. “Things are gonna change pretty fast once word gets out about you two. I’m talking paparazzi and interviews, tours across the kingdom, fancy dinner parties, everything. It’s a lot to handle.”

Carlos nodded, matching Mal’s serious look. “I remember what you went through. And it may take some getting used to, but,” he gave Ben an adorably loving gaze, “as long as Ben and I are together, I can handle it.”

Before the day Ben had told Mal about his feelings for Carlos, she never could’ve imagined the two of them together. But seeing them now, feeling the energy that passed between them whenever they were close, felt more like magic than anything she could find in her mother’s old spell book. She wanted to help them and support them, because despite this being her equivalent of her ex dating her brother, she was happy for them. “So, how are you two making the big announcement? Are you doing a big song-and-dance number in front of the whole school?” she joked.

That was a joke. It was clearly a joke. Mal did not expect Carlos to gasp in excitement at her very, very obvious joke. “Ben, we should totally sing a song together!” he exclaimed, resting a hand on Ben’s arm.

“Guys, I wasn’t being serious,” Mal said.

But Mal knew Ben, and he wouldn’t say no to the person he loved. “That’s a great idea! What do you want to sing?” said Ben.

“You two should totally sing some romantic duet,” Evie muttered dreamily.

“Sounds gay,” Jay chuckled, earning himself a sharp elbow in the side from Evie. He was, unfortunately, starting to develop an Auradonian sense of humor.

Carlos thought about it for a moment. “We’ll want to do something upbeat. Maybe a showtune?”

“Ooh!” Ben perked up. “What about something from High School Musical?”

“Ugh, no,” Carlos groaned, rolling his eyes. “The only good songs in High School Musical are the ones Sharpay and Ryan sing.”

Ben hummed. “Okay then, what if we do the _original_ High School Musical?”

“Romeo and Juliet?” Evie asked, squinting at Ben. “That’s not a musical. Or at least, I don’t think they’ve made a musical out of it…”

Shaking his head, Ben said, “No, I’m talking about Grease!”

“Oh, You’re the One That I Want! That’s a good one.” Carlos tapped his chin contemplatively before adding, “That could work. I’ll do it under two conditions.”

Ben shrugged. “Name them.”

Carlos held up one finger. “Number one, we only do the first verse and chorus. I don’t wanna be stuck in a never-ending repetitive loop that gets more and more sexual over time.”

“That’s easy enough,” Ben replied. “And number two?”

Showing his teeth in an impish grin, Carlos said, “I get to be Sandy.”

***

The next day, Carlos waited for Ben after school in front of the statue of The Beast. Though he knew that this could be a life-changing moment for him, he was surprisingly calm. This was what he wanted. He wanted to tell the world that he was with Ben, he was happy with Ben, and they were going to do something over-the-top and goofy just to prove it to everyone.

Students were flooding out of the school, some scattering but most hanging out like they had nowhere in particular to go. Or maybe they could tell that something was about to happen. It was hard to tell.

Ben emerged from the stone-walled building, carrying two wireless microphones. He spotted Carlos – this is where they’d agreed to meet – and hurried toward him. For once, nobody seemed to take particular notice of Ben – a couple people waved or said hi, but nobody stopped him, and that was a relief. Any delays in executing their plan probably would’ve made Carlos anxious.

“Hey,” said Ben as he approached Carlos.

“Hey,” Carlos responded.

“Everything set up?” Ben asked, looking around at all the students milling about.

Carlos nodded. “Jay’s on the sound system, so all you have to do is cue him in. And Mal and Evie are gonna be around in case we need some security or, like, traffic control.”

Flashing Carlos an admiring gaze, Ben said, “You really thought of everything.”

Carlos, chuckling, gave Ben a playful nudge. “I just got friends who have my back.”

Ben handed Carlos one of the mics. “Ready?”

Carlos took it. “Ready.”

They’d talked this over several times: Ben would start singing and Carlos would hang back, trying to look like any other onlooker, until the moment he was ready to join in. Then, he’d hop up and start singing to surprise everyone. So Carlos took a couple steps back, watching as Ben stood tall in front of the regal statue and cued Jay in.

The moment the music started, some of the lingering students got the hint that something was happening. People gathered around Ben, seemingly not noticing Carlos or his microphone.

Perfect.

As the growing crowd clapped and danced along, Ben began to sing:

“I got chills, they’re multiplying, and I’m losing control. ‘Cause the power you’re supplying, it’s electrifying!”

Holding his mic up to his face, Carlos joined Ben and sang over the crowd’s gasps and cheers:

“You better shape up, ‘cause I need a man and my heart is set on you. You better shape up, you better understand – to my heart I must be true.”

Together, Ben and Carlos turned and sang in each other’s faces:

“Nothing left, nothing left for me to do. You’re the one that I want! You are the one I want, ooh hoo hoo honey. The one that I want! You are the one I want, ooh hoo hoo honey. The one that I want! You are the one I want, ooh hoo hoo, the one I need, oh yes indeed…”

The music faded out, and Ben put an arm around a beaming Carlos. At that point, the crowd was probably half the student population, and everyone was clapping and hollering.

Wow. People liked it. People liked seeing Carlos and Ben together. Carlos couldn’t be happier.

Well, he thought he couldn’t be happier until Ben yelled into his mic, “Carlos! Will you go to homecoming with me?”

Carlos gasped. He hadn’t known this part of the plan, but it was a great surprise. Unable to minimize the dopiness of his grin, he replied into his own mic, “Yes!”

The crowd went wild, and Carlos somehow became even happier. Of course the two would’ve ended up going to the dance together anyway since they were a couple, but an official ask was always expected at Auradon Prep. The more extravagant, the better, and Carlos knew that Ben was great at all things extravagant.

Ben was also apparently full of surprises that day, because the next thing he did was grab Carlos by the waist and pull him in for a kiss. They’d never kissed before, but their lips pressed together for a long moment, and Carlos happily leaned into it, trying not to swoon. He could barely hear the roar of the crowd anymore over the thump of his heartbeat in his ears. When they broke away, he found himself grasping Ben’s shirt to steady himself, matching Ben’s grin with stunned excitement.

That was a hell of a first kiss.

In the crowd, Mal and Evie cheered along with everyone else. They hadn’t needed to play bodyguard as much as they’d thought, so they ended up finding each other and watching the spectacle together.

Shouting over the noise, Evie said to Mal, “Ben sure loves his theatrics, doesn’t he?”

Mal snorted. “Yeah. That’s a hell of a way to ask someone to a dance.” At that moment, an idea struck Mal. The dance. Evie. She turned to her best friend before she could talk herself out of this idea. “Evie! Will you go to homecoming with me?”

Evie’s brown eyes widened as she gasped in excitement. She grabbed Mal’s hand.

Yes, this is it, Mal thought. The roaring crowd protected them from drawing too much attention. Evie was at ease and excited and about to finally become Mal’s girlfriend.

“That’s a great idea, Mal!” Evie exclaimed, squeezing Mal’s hand.

“A great idea?” Mal echoed. That was not how she’d expect anyone to respond to being asked out, especially not a self-proclaimed love expert like Evie.

“Yeah! Who needs a date when you and I can just go together? That’ll be so much more fun.”

Instead of feeling crushed like she usually did when this happened, Mal asserted herself. No more disappointment. No more regrets. She was going to make this happen. “No, I don’t want to go as friends.” Evie furrowed her brow in shock, but Mal continued. “I want to be your date. I want to be your girlfriend, Evie.”

A moment of silence passed between them, despite the noise all around. Evie blinked. “Really?”

The crowd was starting to disperse, as was the noise, so Mal lowered her voice. “Yes. That’s what I’ve wanted for a long time now.” Her voice cracked slightly, giving away both her sincerity and her nervousness. She was suddenly terrified that Evie would reject her and things would get weird between them. Maybe she should’ve kept this to herself…

“Then why didn’t you say so sooner, silly?” Evie giggled. “I’d love to be your date to homecoming. And your girlfriend.” She gave Mal a sweet smile before pulling her in for a hug. “I’ve wanted this for a long time, too,” she admitted as they hugged.

“What?” Mal asked, breaking the hug to look at Evie in disbelief. “then why did _you_ never say anything?”

Evie looked away and shrugged bashfully. There wasn’t much of a crowd left, so they could finally speak at a normal volume. “I didn’t think you felt the same way.”

Mal couldn’t help but laugh. “Isn’t this so typical of us?”

Before Evie could respond, Carlos called from where he was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ben a few yards away, “Hey! Mom and Mom! What are you two gossiping about?”

Putting an arm around her new girlfriend, Mal called to Carlos, “You’re not the only one with news, Son.”

***

Shortly after the song-and-dance scene in the school courtyard, Jay opened the door to his and Carlos’s dorm to find Carlos sitting on his own bed with Ben, both of them watching Carlos’s phone with laser focus. Neither acknowledged Jay, too intent on staring at the screen to dare break away.

“Are you guys trying to blow that phone up with your minds or something?” Jay asked. “What’s with the serious… look?”

The question finally prompted Carlos to look up from his phone and at Jay. “I just set up an alert on my phone so I’ll be notified when my name comes up in the news,” he explained.

“Uh, why?” asked Jay.

“’Cause I’m publicly dating the King now,” Carlos replied. Ben leaned slightly against him. “I need to care about my… what did you call it, Ben?”

Still not looking away from Carlos’s phone, Ben replied, “Digimage. Digital image.”

Carlos nodded. “Yeah. That. The stuff people say about me reflects on Ben and kinda all of Auradon,” he explained. Jay found it odd that Carlos seemed calm about that. Especially considering the way Carlos had reacted initially when Ben asked him out, Jay would’ve expected his friend to at least look worried.

But, with Ben by his side, both of them watching his phone and waiting for something to happen, Carlos was cool. Relaxed. Content.

“Look!” Ben exclaimed, pointing at Carlos’s phone. “A new alert!”

With that, Carlos’s focus snapped right back to where it had been when Jay got there. Back to the glowing object in front of him. “Wow, you were right. The news does move fast.” He tapped his screen and read the article title out loud: “’King Ben Likes Men: Watch the young King’s romantic duet with Carlos, son of Cruella De Vil.’ Huh. I guess that’s not the worst thing TMZ could say about us.”

The two continued reading the article quietly, each occasionally mumbling a word or two. Jay heard “shocking,” “upbeat,” “audience,” and “crowd-pleasing kiss.”

Reclining on his own bed, Jay asked, “So, what’s the verdict?”

“I think TMZ at least kinda likes us,” Carlos said.

Ben gave Carlos a swift peck on the cheek. “They like _you_. Don’t sell yourself short.”

Carlos, putting a hand on Ben’s, said, “I care that they like seeing us together. For the sake of both of our… digimages?”

Of course Carlos was already using Ben’s made-up words. Those two might actually be meant for each other after all.

“Digimages,” Ben echoed, affirming Carlos with a nod. He stood up from the bed, much to Carlos’s obvious displeasure. “I’ve got a meeting to go to, but text me if any more news comes up, okay?”

“I will,” Carlos replied wistfully. “I lo—” he stopped himself. “I’ll see you later.”

Flashing Carlos a painfully adoring smile, Ben left the dorm.

Now that their secret was out, Jay thought it would be a good time to make the joke he’d been making ever since Carlos had started dating the King. He got the 3-D printed crown off their mantle, the one Chad had used their 3-D printer to make and Carlos had reclaimed. Jay got down on his knees and offered the fake crown to Carlos, pretending to be a lowly servant presenting something to royalty. “Your spoils, m’lord,” he said in a tacky little British accent.

All the other times he’d made that joke, Carlos had laughed, rolled his eyes, or at least ironically told Jay to piss off. But this time, Carlos didn’t even crack a smile. He studied the crown as if baffled by its presence. It was off-putting, and Jay worried that he may have accidentally crossed a line.

“Why aren’t you laughing?” It wasn’t like this was the first time they’d played around with their replica of the King’s crown. Jay even liked to put it on sometimes, strutting around the room and making up stupid decrees like, “Every household shall have a llama, whether they want one or not.” No matter how silly he’d gotten, Carlos had always laughed along. Until now.

“I think I really love him,” Carlos breathed, bewildered, his eyes fixed on the crown as if under hypnosis.

Jay could tell that that was the first time Carlos had ever said those words out loud. He dropped the jokey act, sitting beside his best friend and holding the crown in his lap. “And?”

“And… I don’t know how to feel about it,” added Carlos, still looking down as if Jay were still holding the crown up to him. “It’s exciting and scary. It feels so natural, but so different at the same time.” His eyes finally came back from where they’d been glued, looking first at the crown in Jay’s lap then at Jay himself. “You know the throne isn’t the reason I like him, right?”

“I figured you didn’t have much interest in this,” Jay said, gesturing toward the crown. “You hardly take it off the mantle.”

Carlos shrugged. His freckled face sported a thoughtful frown. “I don’t. I never have.”

Getting the sense that something was going on, Jay asked, “And?”

“And… I just feel like most people in Auradon would probably date Ben if they got the chance just because he’s King. But I love Ben. I’d love him even if he were a nobody who lived in a log cabin in the mountains and built furniture for a living…” Carlos trailed off, clearly imagining that scenario. “Wait. That would actually be amazing.” A dreamy look crossed his face. Jay knew that Carlos loved lumberjacks and mountain man types.

Jay snorted. “That’s probably what he likes about you,” he commented. “You don’t just like him for his crown.”

Carlos scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, I never really wanted to become royalty at all,” he admitted.

Jay almost asked Carlos if he’d be willing to become royalty if it meant he could stay with Ben, but he stopped himself. That was a stupid question. He already knew the answer. It was written all over Carlos’s face.

Instead, he wrapped his best friend in a tight hug. “More importantly, you’d better let Benny boy know that if he hurts you, I’ll curb stomp the hell out of him. In fact, Mal, Evie and I will all take turns curb stomping him. We don’t care if he’s King.”

That’s what finally got Carlos to laugh. Villain kids always enjoyed a darker sense of humor. 


	5. Chapter 5

Interview with King Ben and his boyfriend Carlos, by Wendy Darling

I had the special pleasure of sitting down with the King and his new boyfriend to ask them some questions about their new relationship, about themselves, and about each other. This interview will hopefully shed some light on many of our readers’ unanswered questions and provide some perspective on these two.

Wendy: King Ben, Carlos, thank you both ever so much for taking this time with me today.

King Ben: The pleasure’s all ours, Wendy.

Wendy: Let’s jump right into the first question: how long have you two been dating?

Carlos: About a month and a half.

Wendy: So you dated for a whole month before going public. Why is that?

King Ben: Several reasons. We wanted to take things slow at first, and we knew that as soon as we went public, that wouldn’t be an option. Take this for example. Nobody was asking Carlos for interviews before they knew he was dating the King. I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on him that early into our relationship. We agreed that it would be best to have some time to just be a couple.

Wendy: Interesting. Carlos, have you experienced a lot of that pressure now that the world knows about you?

Carlos: Well, I’ll tell you I definitely have less free time. (He pauses, chuckling a little.) It’s actually been nice though, hanging out with royalty. It was pretty intimidating at first, but the more Royals I got to know, the more I realized that under their crowns and fancy clothes, they’re people just like me. Right, babe?

(King Ben takes Carlos’s hand and smiles at him.)

Wendy: Well said. King Ben—”

King Ben: Just Ben is fine.

Wendy: Or “babe,” I suppose?

King Ben: What was your question?

Wendy: Ah, yes. Ben, you previously dated Maleficent’s daughter Mal, making Carlos the second villain kid you’ve dated. Would you say you have a type?

(King Ben sets his jaw, pausing before answering.)

King Ben: Next question, please.

Wendy: The next is a question from a reader: “Do you plan on getting married? If so, how will you get an heir to the throne?” A question I’m sure is on many minds these days.

King Ben: Um… I’m not sure how to answer that. My parents told me before I took the throne that I can and should date whomever I want. They told me that a King who makes himself miserable by denying himself from having true love can’t be a good King. So, that’s where I’m starting. I – er, we – have time to figure out the rest.

Carlos: Also, I’m trans. (This is blurted out. King Ben seems surprised that Carlos has brought this up.)

Wendy: You’re transgender? So you were born a girl?

Carlos: No. When I was born, they thought I was a girl, but they were wrong. I was never a girl.

Wendy: But you have… forgive my bluntness, but “girl parts?”

King Ben: Carlos doesn’t have to tell anyone what’s under his clothes. Next question, please.

Wendy: Okay then, let’s try an easier question. Carlos, what do you like about Ben?

Carlos: Well, it’s that fat ass for me.

(Carlos laughs. Ben looks at him in shock.)

King Ben: Carlos!

Carlos: Heh, I’m just kidding. But seriously, Ben is like, the nicest guy I know. He’s honest and loyal, and he’s always introducing me to new things, which has been awesome. Plus, he’s also super handsome.

Wendy: And Ben, what do you like about Carlos?

King Ben: Everything. (Carlos blushes.)

Wendy: Elaborate on that.

King Ben: It’s just hard to choose one thing. He’s… good. He’s smart, he’s talented, and he’s one of the most loving, affectionate people I’ve ever met. He makes me happy.

***

“Ben, I gotta go warm up,” Carlos practically pleaded. “Lonnie’ll make me do extra laps if I’m late.”

Running a hand through Carlos’s soft hair, Ben leaned in again. “One more kiss?”

Carlos scoffed teasingly. “Fine. If that’s what it takes for you to let go of me.”

The feeling of Carlos’s lips never got old. It was both ethereal and grounding, reminding Ben that amid all the day-to-day chaos of life as a seventeen-year-old King, he was still a human man, both capable and worthy of love.

Even if they weren’t using the L word yet.

When their lips separated with a gentle smack, Ben couldn’t help but smile. Unlike Carlos, who was used to hugging and cuddling with his friends, Ben got most of his physical affection from his boyfriend. And he was constantly craving it. Still, he knew he had to let Carlos go to warm up before the big homecoming game. “Good luck out there. I’ll cheer extra loud for you.”

Either out of discomfort or an attempt at a joke, Carlos gave Ben a friendly pat on the arm. “Go Knights,” he muttered before scurrying off in the direction of the tourney field for warm-ups.

Ben let out a dreamy sigh as he watched Carlos strut off in his uniform. That moment, kissing Carlos behind the locker room, had been a rare instance of alone time for them. When they weren’t being followed around by pesky paparazzi, they were usually with the other VKs or at least Jay. Jay was always. There. It even surprised Ben that Jay hadn’t found them just now, what with how Carlos hardly ever seemed to leave his side.

Carlos had been settling into his new role surprisingly well. While both he and Ben had initially worried about how he’d react to such a drastic lifestyle change, it hadn’t ended up being all that hard. Not only did he not mind the newfound attention, but there were times where it seemed like he reveled in it. He loved posing for pictures. Despite a little stage fright, he even enjoyed interviews and talk show appearances. His manners could still use some work, but what surprised Ben was that most people didn’t care. In fact, there were many people who’d found it charming when Carlos would hold a fork wrong or talk with his mouth full. People online even loved when he was a little crude, like the occasional instance where he’d flip a middle finger to the paparazzi. Overall, it was stunningly different from how Mal had been treated: she’d tried hard to act royal and fit in, but she’d been met with nothing but constant criticism. Carlos, on the other hand, hardly had to try and the public seemed to love him.

This felt right, not just for Ben, but also for Auradon.

***

“Ten seconds left, and the Knights have the ball! Gil passes it to Carlos – the King’s boyfriend, ladies and gentlemen – and wow, look at Carlos run! He’s going straight through the kill zone, and he is untouchable! Will he make the goal before time runs out? Oh! What’s this? He’s passing it to Jay! Jay is head-to-head with the captain of the Wildcats. He runs to the right, but it’s a fake-out! He’s going left, headed straight for the goal, aaaaaaand he scores! Ladies and gentlemen, the Knights have won again!”

***

Seeing the school gymnasium dimly lit with string lights was like walking into a different dimension. There were already many of Ben’s classmates out on the dance floor, jumping up and down to the thump of the DJ’s tunes, as more people trickled in. He took special notice when Uma entered – she was hard not to notice when she had Harry and Gil following her around like lost children all the time. She scanned the room as if looking for something or someone. Maybe she was trying to find Mal or any of the other villain kids so she wouldn’t be stuck alone with those two boys all night.

Ben liked homecoming. Events like these, ones he didn’t have to host, were some of the rare occasions where he felt like a regular teenager. He could just hang out in the crowd, not expected to give speeches or propose toasts, and dance with his date.

Wherever his date was.

He knew that Carlos was probably still changing after the big homecoming game, but when he started to notice other members of the tourney team start to arrive, he couldn’t help but worry. What could be taking Carlos this long? Was he with Jay? Were they… doing something they shouldn’t be doing?

No. Of course not. Carlos had made it clear that he and Jay were just friends.

Best friends.

And roommates.

Surely Carlos wouldn’t cheat, would he?

The crowd, the gym, the string lights… everything started to blur in Ben’s vision as jealousy overwhelmed him. The next thing he knew, he was sitting in a chair, but he wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there. His vision stayed blurry until, in a snap, Carlos appeared in front of him.

Carlos’s smile brought little comfort when Ben realized that Jay was standing next to him. Lightheartedly, Carlos said, “Hey, there you are!”

“Where have you been?” were the first manic words that escaped Ben’s mouth.

Carlos glanced at Jay, then they both gave Ben a weird look. “Where do you think I was? I had to shower and change after the game.”

“But what _took_ you so long?” Ben demanded, shooting Jay a glare.

Jay stepped forward, saying, “Ben, don’t you remember that there’s only one unisex shower? Someone from the other team was using it, and Carlos had to wait for them to finish before he could get in.”

Still not convinced, Ben narrowed his eyes. “Then why did you take so long too?” he asked Jay.

“Uh, I was waiting for him? What do you think I was doing?”

Frowning, Carlos asked, “Babe, are you all right? You’re acting weird.”

Carlos’s frown drew Ben out of whatever had possessed him to get jealous in the first place. Ben looked from Carlos to Jay. Quit being ridiculous, he told himself. Don’t make a scene. “I, uh, was just worried about you. Wanna dance?”

“Yeah!” Jay exclaimed. He put an arm around Ben and another arm around Carlos to lead them to the dance floor. The DJ was playing a song that was popular on the radio, and the three sang and danced along.

Even with Jay kind of in the way of what was supposed to be a date, it was still fun to dance with Carlos. They even found Mal and Evie in the crowd at one point, but the girls only danced with them for a short while before splitting off to dance as a couple.

Ben wished he could do that, but he knew Carlos wouldn’t leave Jay by himself.

The music stopped, and the DJ called into his mic, “Ladies and gentlemen of Auradon Prep, your Homecoming King and Queen: Chad and Audrey!”

The Homecoming King and Queen emerged from the gymnasium doors, the only couple in the whole gym that was dressed up like this was prom. Chad and Audrey wore dazzling smiles as they approached the dance floor to the sound of cheers. When they reached the middle, they stopped and turned to each other. A slow, familiar tune played. They began to slow dance, and other couples quickly joined in.

In an exaggeratedly princely manner, Ben bowed and extended a hand to Carlos. “May I have this dance?”

Carlos chuckled, but took his hand.

_I know you,_

_I walked with you once upon a dream._

_I know you,_

_that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam._

_And I know it’s true_

_that visions are seldom what they seem,_

_but if I know you, I know what you’ll do._

_You’ll love me at once_

_the way you did once_

_upon a dream._

Ben sang along, holding Carlos close as they waltzed together. He was glad that they could finally do something that night that made it feel like a real date.

“I guess that ballroom dancing unit in PE class wasn’t as dorky as I thought,” Carlos quipped.

Half-smiling, Ben replied, “It’s a useful skill to have, especially if you’re keeping me around.”

Carlos got more serious, his deep brown eyes looking into Ben’s with obvious concern. “Hey, are people staring at us?”

“How can they not stare when you’re this good-looking?”

Blushing, Carlos insisted, “Seriously, is anybody watching?”

Ben didn’t see why it mattered. They were important people – they were watched pretty frequently, and it was hardly ever a big deal. Still, he glanced around. “No, why?”

“Um.” Carlos leaned in closer until his lips were next to Ben’s ear. He whispered, “I love you.”

***

Sitting around the post-Homecoming bonfire outside of Mal and Evie’s castle, the four VKs all eyed Ben as he went inside to use the bathroom.

The moment the door closed behind him, Evie’s head whipped back around to face her friends. “Okay, his vibes are totally off today,” she announced.

Mal played with the bonfire, shooting little balls of blue flame from her hands and into the pit. It was something her dad had recently shown her, but she didn’t do it around Ben. Ben nagged her about being “irresponsible with magic” anytime she did anything fun.

“I’m glad you said that, ‘cause he’s been acting weird all night. Even at the dance, something was off,” said Jay.

Carlos, now without Ben as a heat source, scooted closer to Jay on the bench they were sharing. “What do you mean?” he asked as he wrapped his blanket-draped arms around his friend for warmth. “He seems fine to me.”

Mal looked from Jay to Evie. They were right, and it was odd that Carlos didn’t recognize that something wasn’t quite right about his boyfriend that night, unless he was just in denial. Ben had been acting shifty, giving Mal, Jay, and Evie suspicious looks all night while holding Carlos just a little too tightly. “Did anything weird happen earlier that may have set him off or something?” Mal asked Carlos.

While Carlos thought about it, Jay responded for him. “He got his Royal panties in a twist earlier because Carlos and I took too long getting ready for the dance.”

“He was worried about us,” Carlos added defensively.

“If that’s what you wanna call it,” Jay replied, pulling Carlos closer.

Evie gave Mal a worried look. “You don’t think… I mean, does Ben get jealous?”

Mal inhaled and stopped shooting flames into the fire pit. She had no idea how to answer that question. The truth was that Ben had cheated on Audrey with her, then later cheated on her with Uma before coming out as gay to anybody, so what right did he have to be jealous, especially about Jay? As if Carlos and Jay would ever be able to keep a clandestine relationship, clandestine.

The conversation came to a halt when the door to the castle re-opened. Ben emerged, and Mal tried to cover up the fact that they’d all been talking about him. “Welcome back,” she said ironically. “How was your pee?”

But Ben didn’t even acknowledge Mal. He stared directly at Carlos, wrapped in a blanket and holding Jay tight for warmth. In the firelight, his eyes glowed a frightening orange and red. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded from Carlos.

This was not good. Mal sensed that Ben might shift into his explosive “beast mode” soon, but she had no idea how to stop it or even begin to help.

Carlos pouted, saying, “You left, and I got cold.”

“Ben—” Mal tried to intervene, but Ben cut her off.

“I leave for two minutes and you just snuggle up with another man?” Ben growled, on the verge of shouting. “You said you loved me.”

Always the type to stand up for himself and for Carlos, Jay didn’t flinch. “Hey. Relax. This isn’t anything more than what it is. I’m just a hot-blooded Arab who’s trying to keep my friend warm, that’s all.”

“First the dance, and now this?” Ben continued as if he hadn’t heard Jay at all. “I don’t want to share you, Carlos. I won’t.”

“Ben.” Evie said his name firmly, like a mother scolding her child.

Ben ignored her, too. “Get off of him,” he commanded Carlos.

“Why?” asked Carlos. “Literally, what is the harm?”

“You’re my boyfriend!” Ben yelled. His lips twisted into a snarl, and Mal could tell that things were about to get even uglier. It was like watching a car crash: she could do nothing but watch. “You’re mine. Not his. You should be holding me like that!”

“But you weren’t here—” Carlos tried to protest.

“Me not being here isn’t an excuse for you to get with other guys!” Ben interrupted, still yelling. “Get off of him. Now.”

Carlos’s face darkened. “Fine.” Letting go of Jay, he stood up with his blanket still draped across his shoulders. “I’ll just go inside where there’s heating.” As he stomped toward the door, he grumbled, “Try not to get jealous of the furnace.” He entered the castle and slammed the door shut.

Instead of following him like Mal assumed he would, Ben sat back down in front of the fire, growling something under his breath. His face still wore a snarl, but he looked more like a kid who’d just gotten his Xbox taken away than a wild beast now.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Evie asked, shaking her head in disgust.

“He shouldn’t be doing stuff with other guys when he’s dating me,” Ben replied grumpily.

“Doing stuff?” Evie echoed. “They were hugging. Don’t you hug your friends?”

Glaring directly into the fire, Ben replied, “No. I hug my boyfriend. And maybe my parents, sometimes.”

Jay piped in. “Sounds like Benny boy is jealous _and_ touch starved.”

“Shut up,” Mal hissed at Jay. She sighed. She always hated having to explain the VKs’ friendship to Auradonians because Auradonians always acted like the four of them were all dating each other. “Look, Ben. The four of us have always been like this. It’s… more or less a survival tactic we learned from the Isle.”

Ben looked up, his eyes out of focus from staring directly into the bright flames. “You… hugged to survive?” he asked, puzzled.

Picking up where Mal left off, Evie said, “In a way, yes. Touching someone without the intent to harm them was a sign of mutual trust, and hugs were one of the biggest signs of trust because of how vulnerable it makes you."

“And,” Mal continued, “it’s how we survived winters. There wasn’t exactly an abundance of heaters and blankets on the Isle. The best way to stay warm at night was to share a bed with someone else and share body heat.”

“So you guys shared beds?” Ben asked, making a curious face.

“Well,” Jay started, leaning in closer to the fire, “depending on how cold it was, sometimes all four of us would pile into one bed. It wasn’t weird. We just… needed each other, I guess.”

Ben frowned. “I keep forgetting how tough you guys had it,” he said. “Does that mean you and Carlos…”

“Scout’s honor, I have no interest in stealing your boyfriend,” said Jay, holding up his right hand. “We’ve always been like this. It’s not a romantic thing. Plus,” he stretched his arms over his head, “I don’t wanna be tied down before I go out of state for college. They say Charmington University’s filled to the brim with baddies who love tourney champs.” Jay winked at Ben, but Ben just looked back down at the fire.

“Wow. I was a real dick to Carlos just now, wasn’t I?” he reflected.

Exchanging a knowing look, Mal and Evie said in unison, “Yep.”

Ben sighed. “I should go apologize. I think I seriously pissed him off.”

The other three nodded. They watched him enter the castle, then exchanged silent glances as they all tried to listen in on Ben’s conversation with Carlos.

They heard nothing. Ben returned from inside too quickly.

“What’s wrong?” Evie asked, twirling a lock of her silky blue hair.

Ben nibbled his bottom lip, seemingly unfazed by whatever had happened in Mal and Evie’s home. “Nothing,” he replied earnestly. “Carlos is asleep on your couch. I thought about waking him up to apologize, but I worried that might piss him off more.”

Mal laughed. “Good move.” With that, she stood up. “It’s probably time we all got to bed. You boys wanna stay over? We’ve got guest rooms.”

“No thanks,” said Jay. “I should get back to the dorm and keep Dude company. He doesn’t like being left alone overnight.”

Ben said, “I’d rather sleep in my own bed tonight, but thanks for the offer.”

“Fine by me.” Mal extended a hand toward the fire and used magic to absorb all its heat until the pit was nothing but cold logs. That was another trick she’d learned from her dad, and an amazingly efficient way to put out a fire.

“I really wish you wouldn’t use your magic like that,” Ben sighed.

“You’re not my dad,” Mal replied with a sarcastic Cheshire Cat grin.


	6. Chapter 6

Carlos woke up the next morning on Mal and Evie’s couch to the sound of a knock on the castle door. Assuming it was either someone there to see one of the girls or some freak from TMZ who’d followed Carlos there, he rolled over and tried to ignore it. In his mind, it was far too early for visitors anyway.

Whoever it was, they knocked again.

And again.

And again.

On the fifth knock, Evie emerged from Mal’s room, her hair a knotted mess. The sight startled Carlos, partially because he was used to always seeing Evie with perfect hair and makeup and partially because he hadn’t expected Evie to come out of Mal’s room. She’d clearly slept in her girlfriend’s room last night. How long had they been doing that kind of thing?

Right behind Evie was Mal, in a similarly disheveled state. Together, they dragged themselves to the front door. Carlos stayed curled up on the couch, hoping to get back to sleep after the knocking ended.

The girls opened the door.

“Hey, is Carlos still here?” Ben’s voice.

So much for going back to sleep.

Evie nodded at Ben, then waved her hands at Carlos in a “get the hell over here” gesture. Though Carlos wasn’t quite sure he was ready to see Ben, he figured he had little choice, so he followed Evie’s wordless order and rolled off the couch.

He was nervous about confronting Ben. He’d barely had time to process the events of last night, and he had no idea if Ben had, either. Would Ben even want to stay with him after last night’s fight? Carlos certainly wouldn’t put it past a Royal like Ben to come all the way out to the castle this early in the morning just for a breakup. Taking a deep breath and preparing for the worst, he approached the door.

When he saw Ben in the doorway, Carlos froze. Ben stood there, morning sunlight pouring in all around him, holding a small bouquet and a box of chocolates. His shoulders were up near his ears, and he wore a sad expression that reminded Carlos of a sick puppy.

Ben entered the castle, practically shoving past Mal and Evie to get to Carlos. “I’m so sorry about last night,” Ben blurted out. “It was unkingly and frankly unboyfriendly of me.”

Unboyfriendly? Was that even a real word?

He held out the flowers and chocolates to Carlos. “Can you find it in your heart to forgive me and move past this with me?”

Carlos frowned at Ben’s offerings. As much as he loved Ben and wanted to make up with him, he worried that events like last night would keep happening. “You scared me last night,” he managed to say. When Ben replied with a confused look, he continued, “I don’t mind working on my table manners or learning how to ballroom dance or even avoiding rude conversation topics at parties for you, but…” he glanced at Evie, then Mal. They were standing on either side of him like messy-haired bodyguards. “I won’t change the way I treat my friends to be with you. I can’t. And honestly, I shouldn’t have to choose between you and them."

Carlos processed his own feelings into words as they came out of his mouth. He realized that Ben hadn’t angered him last night, but he’d genuinely scared him. The thought of having to choose between his boyfriend and his best friends made him sick.

If it came down to that choice, though, Carlos knew which one he’d choose. It was a no-brainer. He just never thought he would have to.

Ben looked at Carlos with sad hazel eyes. “I’m sorry for scaring you, but I love you so much that I felt threatened. I don’t want anything to come between us. Mal, Evie, and Jay helped me understand how closed minded and selfish I was being. I won’t let it happen again. I promise.”

Not only were Ben’s eyes on Carlos, but Carlos could also feel Mal and Evie watching him. Knowing them, they’d be ready to kick Ben out of the house the moment Carlos said the word. But he didn’t. Instead, he accepted Ben’s gifts and mumbled, “I don’t like it when we fight.”

“Me neither,” Ben sighed.

Carlos brought Ben in for a hug. Ben happily squeezed him, holding him there as Mal and Evie quietly squealed in delight.

When they broke from the hug, Ben smiled at Carlos. “Are you busy today? We should spend the whole day together, just you and me. I want to make up for the crappy night I caused last night.”

Shocked, Carlos said, “Uh, I guess I’m free, but don’t you have King stuff to do?”

“I’ll cancel my plans for you. It’s a Saturday, I’m sure everyone will understand.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I’m sure.” Ben placed a gentle kiss on Carlos’s temple. “I think you and I could both use a day off.”

As they left the castle together, Mal and Evie enthusiastically waved goodbye to them.

“Bye, guys,” Evie called, giggling.

“Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do,” Mal added teasingly.

Making sure Ben didn’t see it, Carlos flipped Mal and Evie a middle finger as he walked off with his boyfriend. Those two really were like moms: embarrassing as hell.

***

“…And this is Raymond’s house. I planted these little flower beds out here for him. Sometimes I catch him reading to the flowers.”

Leaning against Carlos’s chest, Ben watched the Switch screen with fascination. Carlos had been showing Ben his Animal Crossing island for at least half an hour, and it was clear that he’d devoted hundreds of hours into this game. While Ben still didn’t quite get the appeal of Animal Crossing, he loved hearing Carlos talk about something he was this invested in. Carlos was adorable when he geeked out like that.

They were taking a well-deserved full day off, not just from school and work but also from the world. Ben had brought Carlos to his room in Auradon Castle, locked the doors, closed the blinds, and instructed his servants to leave them alone. They’d both been under a lot of stress lately. Ever since their relationship had gone public, their lives had been a constant stream of building pressure, and they needed some time to just be a couple.

Ben snuggled up closer to Carlos on the couch. “Looks like you’ve put a lot of love into designing your island,” he commented.

“I’m really happy with how it all turned out,” Carlos admitted. He paused, lowering his Switch onto his lap. “Would you, maybe, want to make a guy on my island?”

Sitting up so that his head was no longer on his boyfriend’s chest, Ben looked at Carlos’s face. Carlos was chewing his bottom lip. “Really?” Ben asked. “Do you want me to?”

“Yeah. I think you’d like it. It’s relaxing,” Carlos replied.

Relaxing. When Carlos put it that way, it did sound nice. “Then I’d love to.” He leaned closer to Carlos and pursed his lips in a wordless request for a kiss.

Carlos obliged. They kissed again and again, each kiss getting slower and deeper than the last. Ben slipped a hand under the bottom hem of Carlos’s shirt. The feeling of the soft skin on his boyfriend’s abdomen paired with those surprisingly toned muscles was nothing short of dreamy. Ben felt his own heartbeat in his hands, his throat, and his skull as he felt his way up Carlos’s side. Carlos let out an encouraging grunt as they continued kissing, his fingers locking into Ben’s hair. They’d never gone this far before, and Ben wondered if they should take it further.

When Ben’s hand reached a patch of skin that felt different, he paused. He broke away from Carlos’s kiss, prompting Carlos to give him a “what’s wrong?” look. Running his fingers along that part of Carlos’s side to get a better feel for it, Ben asked, “What’s this? A scar?”

Visibly relaxing, Carlos replied, “Oh. Yeah.” He removed his hand from Ben’s hair to lift his shirt enough for Ben to see the scar. It was a couple inches below his ribcage, just low enough that the black binder he wore didn’t cover it up, and it was a gnarly one. “It’s from this one time when I got stabbed,” Carlos explained casually.

“You got _stabbed?_ ” Ben repeated. He was mortified, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the scar. “When?”

Carlos thought about it. “Well, I’ve been stabbed a few times, but this time was the only one that left a scar. It was years ago, back on the Isle.”

Ben felt something in his stomach drop. Carlos, the person he loved, had been stabbed multiple times in his life. He wasn’t sure what was worse: the fact that Carlos had been stabbed at all, or how Carlos was acting like it was no big deal. “What, was it like a normal thing for people on the Isle to stab each other casually?”

“Well, no, but knives were a pretty common weapon in gang fights.”

Right. Ben remembered hearing about the rampant gang violence that took place on the Isle before they opened the barrier. From what he understood, Mal’s was one of the most powerful gangs at the time, so it made sense that they would have enemies. Still, Ben couldn’t imagine someone as sweet as Carlos in a gang fight. It seemed unnatural. It seemed wrong.

“This scar actually has a kinda funny story behind it. So we’re in this fight with a pretty powerful gang, and it’s getting ugly. Like, the streets are clearing out because all the onlookers are getting scared and running. And this big guy from the other gang comes at me with a knife, right? He takes a few swipes at me, but I’m quick, so I’m dodging him and stuff, but what I don’t know is that one of his buddies is sneaking up behind me. So while I’m dodging this one dude, the other guy just comes up and stabs me in the side!”

“Carlos,” Ben interrupted. This whole story was making Ben feel sick to his stomach. “How is any of that funny?”

“Well, that’s not the funny part. I’m getting there,” Carlos replied, waving a hand dismissively. It still baffled Ben that this seemed to be such a casual conversation topic for Carlos. Did all the VKs find it normal to tell stories about past gang violence and battle wounds? “Anyway, the guy stabs me pretty deep, and I go into bad enough shock that I eventually pass out.”

Ben didn’t know how much more of this story he could take.

“When I wake up, I can tell the fight’s over because Evie’s cleaning my wound. I can also tell she’s using vodka, ‘cause I can smell it. So I ask Evie, ‘where’d you get the vodka?’ And she looks at me and goes,” Carlos cracked up, “’Jay stole it from your mom. Don’t tell her.’” He erupted into laughter.

Ben did not laugh. “Good God, Carlos! You could’ve died!”

His laughter dying down, Carlos smirked at Ben. “I know, but I didn’t. And it’s not like that was my first near-death experience.”

Resisting the urge to cry, Ben pulled Carlos in for a tight hug. His stomach was still churning, but he needed Carlos close to him. “I’m so glad you’re out of there,” he said, his voice weak.

Carlos chuckled. “Hey, I turned out okay! I mean, who would’ve thought I’d end up in Auradon and dating the King?”

In an attempt to lighten up, Ben let go of Carlos and commented, “Certainly not the guy who stabbed you in the side.”

“Exactly! I’m pretty sure that kid’s dead now anyway.”

Those words were the tipping point that finally caused the contents of Ben’s stomach to come back up. He covered his mouth and raced to the bathroom, too close to vomiting to explain what was wrong.

“Ben?” Carlos called, concerned.

Ben made it just in time, bending over the toilet as his lunch came up. It hurt and made his eyes water, not to mention how embarrassing it was to get sick in front of his date like that.

A hand rubbed his back. “It’s okay,” said Carlos gently. Ben hadn’t even heard Carlos following him, but the touch was comforting. “Just let it out.”

The worst of it was soon over. As Ben flushed the toilet, Carlos dampened a washcloth and handed it to him. Ben gratefully wiped the tears and spit off his face with it. “Thanks,” he said, sitting back against the bathroom wall. “Sorry you had to see that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Carlos replied, sitting next to him on the floor. “So do you think it was something you ate, or…”

Though Ben was embarrassed to admit it, he sighed and told Carlos the truth. “I, uh, got a little squeamish, actually,” he admitted.

Carlos raised his eyebrows in shock. “Crap. I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize my story would upset you that bad.” He squeezed Ben’s shoulder. “Next time that happens, tell me to shut up and I’ll shut up.”

Ben smiled weakly. “I’ll say it nicer than that if it happens.”

They stayed there on the floor for a few minutes longer, Ben taking deep breaths until he felt that his stomach was completely calm. After brushing his teeth to get the awful taste out of his mouth (and to make sure his breath didn’t stink around Carlos), they returned to the couch.

When they sat, something caught Ben’s attention. “Nice socks,” he said to Carlos.

“Oh, Thanks,” Carlos replied, looking at his feet and curling his toes. He wore white crew socks that had a big Auradon Prep logo stitched in the sides, and the socks exactly resembled a pair Ben had lost a couple weeks ago.

Ben put on his best poker face. He wanted to get the truth out of Carlos without making it seem like he was suspicious. “Where’d you get them?”

Playing with the hem of his shirt, Carlos kept his gaze down by his feet. “Uh. I don’t remember.” Even Ben, who was notoriously bad at picking up on lying and sarcasm, could tell that Carlos was lying. It was written all over his face, his hands, his feet – but it was weirdly cute.

“Hm. That’s a shame. I’ve been looking to get a pair like that. I had some, but they went missing and I really wanted to replace them –”

“Okay! Fine!” Carlos finally made eye contact with Ben. His face slowly went red. “I stole them from you. I didn’t think you’d notice. I’m… I’m sorry.” Carlos looked down again, although this time it was less of a covering-up-a-lie look and more of an ashamed-for-lying look.

Ben giggled. “Carlos, it’s okay,” he said. Carlos looked back up at him, surprised and confused. Also a cute look on him. “Why’d you take a pair of my socks, though? If you needed socks, I could’ve gotten you some.”

Still just about red enough to blend in with his shirt, Carlos muttered, “No, that’s not it. I just like these. They’re nice, and they make me think of you when I wear them. Do you… I mean, do I have to give them back now?”

Carlos had no right being that cute, giving Ben those big brown puppy dog eyes. Ben couldn’t have asked for his socks back even if he wanted them. “Of course not, I’ve got plenty of socks. They’re all yours.” Carlos’s face lit up. Ben would give him every sock he owned if it meant he could make him that happy all the time, but he had an idea for something better. He took his gold signet ring off his finger. “Would wearing this make you think of me, too?” he asked, offering it to Carlos.

Ben had never seen Carlos’s eyes go so wide, and he had to stop himself from cracking up at the sight. “Are you sure?” Carlos practically gasped the words.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” Ben replied. Haltingly, Carlos extended his right hand to let Ben put the ring on his finger. They both grew huge grins as the ring slid on. “Perfect fit.”

***

As soon as Carlos walked into the room, Jay saw it. He hoped that his friend would bring it up without too much prompting so that he wouldn’t have to pry, but he had to know about it.

“How was your day off with Benny boy?” Jay asked, lying on his stomach and looking up from his phone.

Putting his hands in his pockets, possibly to hide them, Carlos said, “Fine.”

“What’d you guys do?” Jay tried to press. Carlos couldn’t hide that thing forever, especially since Jay had already seen it.

“Nothing. Just stayed inside. Played some video games. Talked. Y’know…” As Carlos spoke, Dude came up to him and started pawing at his leg. Carlos bent down to pet him, but keeping his one hand in his pocket.

Jay put his phone down. “C’mon, man, quit trying to hide it. I can spot a piece of gold that size from a mile away.” Carlos opened his mouth in surprise, but Jay continued. “You got a ring on your finger,” he said with an excited smirk.

Carlos sighed, but he finally took his hand out of his pocket. There it was: that solid gold signet ring, a big, heavy-looking thing that looked like it could weigh down anyone smaller than Carlos. “It’s just his signet ring,” he said, trying to be coy.

“Just King Ben’s beloved signet ring?” Jay asked, cocking a playful eyebrow. “Just something the King gave you as a symbol of his love and faithfulness to you? What did you do to earn that?” Jay couldn’t resist asking, hoping there was a juicy story behind it.

“Well,” said Carlos, looking up in thought, “I made him throw up, then I admitted to stealing stuff from him.” He sat on the floor with Dude, who rolled over for Carlos to scratch his belly.

That was the opposite of what Jay had expected to hear. In fact, it wasn’t even an opposite; it was in a completely different realm than Jay’s expectation. “Okay, there’s gotta be a story behind that.”

Carlos recounted the story of how he’d told Ben about his stab scar and how that had led to Ben getting physically ill. He then told Jay about how Ben had found out that Carlos had stolen a pair of his socks and how that had led to Ben giving him his signet ring. As the story progressed and increased in absurdity, Jay got dangerously close to falling off his bed in laughter.

“That is rich,” Jay cackled, wiping away tears. He steadied himself on the bed, still barely able to control his laughter. “Only Ben would find out someone stole something from him and go, ‘Here, lemme give you another thing!’”

Both Carlos and Dude chuckled. “Yeah, that’s a very Ben move, isn’t it?”

Jay got an idea. “Wait. I have an idea,” he said, sitting up abruptly on the edge of his bed. After Carlos looked up at him expectantly, he continued. “Let’s pierce your ears.”

“What?” Carlos asked, surprised enough that he stopped petting Dude. “First of all, what’s that got to do with anything?”

“Think about it. Ben gave you that fat ring, I’m sure he’d love to give you earrings if he knew you’d wear them.” Jay brushed his hair behind his ears to show off the earrings he was wearing: one of his favorite pairs, gold with big ruby studs. “Plus, all the hot dudes get their ears pierced. Don’t you wanna be hot like me?”

Carlos puffed. “Shut up,” he said dismissively. He went back to petting his dog before adding, “Do you think I’d look good in earrings?”

“Hell yeah, man! Everyone looks better with a little more bling. C’mere, I can pierce your ears right now,” Jay said, reaching for a safety pin on his nightstand.

“What? Since when do you pierce ears?”

“Since always. Don’t you know I did myself?”

“With that?” Carlos pointed to Jay’s safety pin.

“Nah,” Jay laughed, “I did these years ago, back on the Isle. But this,” he held up the pin, “I did use to pierce Gil’s ears. Works great.”

Shaking his head in surprise, Carlos asked, “You pierced Gil’s ears? When?”

“Last week. He said something about Uma liking guys who wear earrings.” He couldn’t even get the words out without laughing.

Carlos laughed, too. “When are he and Harry gonna realize she doesn’t like guys, period?”

“Probably never. So, are we doing this or not?”

Carlos paused. He stood up, holding Dude in his arms. “Do you really think Ben will like it?” he asked.

“Ben will lose his mind.” Standing up from his bed, Jay gestured for Carlos to sit at one of their desk chairs. Carlos did so. Jay leaned over to get a good look at what he was working with. Most people made marks on the earlobe where they wanted to make a piercing, but Jay was good at eyeballing it. Plus, he was too impatient to bother with the extra work of marking the ears. “M’kay, hold still. This’ll only hurt for a second.” Without any further warning, he stuck the pin through Carlos’s earlobe.

Carlos whimpered, clearly trying to suppress a scream. When the pin left his earlobe, he said, “Jeez, am I bleeding?”

“Only a little,” Jay replied. He handed Carlos a tissue, which he quickly brought up to his ear. “Hey, it’s okay! You’re halfway done.” He didn’t want to give Carlos too much time to anticipate the second piercing, so he did it as quickly as possible. Carlos yelped. “There. All done. Now let’s pick out some studs you can wear until those heal.” He grabbed the small jewelry box that held his earrings and offered it to his friend.

“Are you sure I can wear your earrings?” Carlos asked, opening the box and examining its contents.

“’Course. As long as you give ‘em back eventually.”

Carlos picked out a pair of little gold-plated studs. Jay helped him put them in.

“Hoo boy, check you out!” Jay exclaimed, leading Carlos to their wall-mounted mirror.

Looking at his reflection, Carlos smiled. “Wow, Jay. You were right, earrings do look good on me!”

“Told ya. And they’ll look even better when there’s no blood on ‘em!”


	7. Chapter 7

Evie’s castle had a bit of a metaphorical revolving door, and that was just how she liked it. She adored having company over, even if it was often the same handful of faces as always, so when Ben asked to come over to do homework, Evie jumped at the opportunity to host. He’d come over right in the middle of Dizzy giving Evie a haircut, but Evie didn’t mind. She could multitask.

Salon chair set up in the middle of the castle’s living room, Dizzy hummed as she happily cut Evie’s hair. Ben was sitting on the couch, working on an essay for his political science class.

“What’s another word for ‘uprising’?” Ben asked Evie.

Without hesitating, Evie started listing synonyms. “Revolution, revolt, riot…”

“Coup?” Dizzy piped in.

“Coup! That’s perfect! Thanks, Dizzy.” Ben went back to typing in silence. He’d told Evie that this class would count toward his accelerated Bachelor’s in Political Science that he’d be pursuing online after graduation, so she wasn’t surprised that he was that focused. Still, she got the feeling that Ben hadn’t come over just to get help brainstorming for this essay.

“So,” Evie started, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face, “were all the tables at the library full?”

Ben didn’t look up from his screen. “No, I’m just kinda hiding from my parents.”

Oh? Perfect Ben, whose khakis were always freshly pressed and who never missed an opportunity to say please or thank you, was hiding from his perfect parents? Whatever this was about, it had to be interesting. Evie could tell that her sweet Dizzy was thinking the same thing because she paused from cutting her hair. “Tell me more,” Evie said, an amused smile forming on her face.

“It’s kind of weird. I’m not sure Dizzy wants to hear about it.”

“Well, now I wanna hear it even more!” Dizzy exclaimed, going back to cutting Evie’s hair.

“C’mon, what’s going on?” Evie pressed. “We’re your friends, we won’t tell anyone.”

Ben partially shut his laptop. “Okay. You know how Carlos and I spent the day together yesterday?”

“Yeah?”

“Well,” said Ben, “Basically, a few news outlets are spreading rumors that we…” he glanced at Dizzy. “…did more than we actually did, if you know what I mean.”

Though he was trying to be as PG as possible around 13-year-old Dizzy, Evie picked up on his euphemism. She was sure Dizzy did, too – she was a bright kid. So, partially for Dizzy’s amusement and partially to egg Ben on, she asked, “So you two didn’t ‘go the distance’ yesterday?”

Ben’s cheeks turned pink. He frowned uncomfortably. “Honestly, no we didn’t. And don’t call it that.”

Evie and Dizzy giggled.

“My parents are furious, though. This is not good for my image. I’m gonna look like a King who gets distracted by pretty boys – their words, not mine.” Ben sighed. “So, yeah, I’m trying to escape their wrath for at least a couple hours.”

“Wow,” said Evie. “If it was front-page news every time I got laid, you’d be seeing my picture in the paper a lot, if you know what I mean.” Dizzy removed the hairdresser’s cape from around Evie’s neck, and she and Evie high-fived.

“All done,” Dizzy said, handing Evie a hand mirror.

Evie used the mirror checked herself out. Dizzy had touched up her color and trimmed a few inches off the ends. “Perfect as always. Thanks, girl!” She handed the girl a few wadded-up bills from her jacket pocket.

“Always a pleasure doin’ business with you,” Dizzy replied, adjusting her thick-rimmed glasses as she counted the money. Shoving the cash into one of her many apron pockets, she eyed Ben. “Want me to fix your hair next?” she asked him.

“Fix it? What’s wrong with it?” Ben asked.

Dizzy rolled her eyes. She had a certain tween-girl bluntness to her, the kind where she’d tell you the hard, painful truth no matter who you were. “Seriously? That hairstyle was probably cute on you when you were ten, but you’re almost eighteen, and it just makes you look like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. And not in a cute way.” Her little pigtail buns bobbed with her head as she spoke down to the King.

“Ouch,” said Ben, clearly offended but trying to play it off.

“Y’know, Ben, Dizzy’s got a very good eye,” said Evie. “She helped me find the perfect shade of blue for my hair, and I’ve been using the same one for years now.”

Ben’s interest appeared to be piqued. “Okay then, what would you suggest I change?” he asked Dizzy.

Dizzy’s face lit up, thrilled to have a new project. “Come sit!” she insisted, patting her salon chair. Tentatively, Ben got up from the couch and sat in the chair. Dizzy spun the chair 360 degrees to get a look at him from all sides – something she always did before starting on someone’s hair. “First things first,” Dizzy said, lifting a lock from the top of his head to examine it, “what on Earth do you use for shampoo and conditioner?”

“Dove Men’s 3-in-1,” Ben replied.

“Oh, honey.” Dizzy shook her head in disapproval. “3-in-1 shampoo, conditioner, and body wash may as well be called ‘0-in-1.’ It doesn’t do any of the three things well.” She grabbed her tote bag – a thing big enough that she could probably fit herself in it – and began to dig around. It took her a second to find what she was looking for, but she soon pulled out two glass jars about the size of her fist. They both contained off-white substances, one of them clearer and the other opaquer. Evie recognized them as Dizzy’s home-brewed shampoo and conditioner, respectively. “Try these instead. And find something organic for body wash, it’s way better for your skin.” She handed the jars to Ben.

Muttering a quick thank-you, Ben accepted the jars.

“Now, let’s talk about your new look!” said Dizzy. “We’ve gotta get rid of this puke-brown color, so I’m thinking we dye it black, then we shave the sides to give your head more shape—”

“Woah, hang on,” Ben interrupted. “I don’t want to stifle your creativity, but I still need to look like a King. What you’re describing sounds more like a goth DJ.”

Dizzy set her jaw, disappointed but never stifled. Thinking out loud, she said, “Well, the customer’s always right. How about this! I still think we should dye it, but maybe just a couple shades darker than your natural color so it’s not, y’know, puke brown anymore.

“Okay,” Ben said cautiously.

“And,” Dizzy continued, “I think you’d look good with an undercut. We don’t have to go too short on the sides, just enough that your head has a shape and you’re not so close to mullet territory.”

Evie grinned with pride. Mullet territory. Both clever and true.

“That still just seems a little dramatic,” said Ben. “Like, a cut _and_ a dye job? Can’t I just do one or the other?”

That was when Evie piped in again. She loved Dizzy’s idea, and she knew Ben well enough to be confident that he’d love it, too, if he gave it a chance. “Come on, Ben! Be bold for once. Imagine how symbolic it’ll be showing up to your eighteenth birthday party looking like a new man.” When Ben still didn’t seem convinced, Evie added, “Plus, imagine how much your boyfriend will like it!”

That’s what finally got Ben’s attention. He perked up comically at the mention of his boyfriend. “Do you really think Carlos will like it?”

She had him right where she wanted him now. Carlos was Ben’s weakness, and in this case, Evie could use that weakness to prove herself right. “He’ll love it,” she told him. “Carlos loves all things bold. Why do you think most of his wardrobe is black, white, and red?”

“Hm, I never thought about it like that,” said Ben.

“And,” said Dizzy, standing behind the back of the salon chair and resting her hands on Ben’s shoulders, “your satisfaction is guaranteed, or your haircut’s on me!”

“Okay!” Ben’s excitement was unmistakable. “I’ll give it a shot.”

“Yes!” Dizzy cheered.

While Evie knew this was the right decision for Ben, she also had to admit to herself that her ulterior motive was to drum up some business for her dear friend. A high-profile client like Ben with a dramatic enough makeover could really boost Dizzy’s business.

Not to mention that she knew Carlos would lose his mind in the best way possible over this, too.

***

 _Evie: This your man?_ 😉

Her text to Carlos included a photo of Ben with his new hairdo. Dizzy had truly knocked it out of the park – with the darker hair and the shorter cut, he looked more mature and refined. More like a King.

_Carlos: WHAT????_

_Carlos: I’m omw_

***

By the time Carlos got there, Ben had already returned to his essay and Evie and Dizzy had cleaned up all the hair on the floor. His key turned in the lock and he let himself in. When he spotted Ben, sitting on the couch and hunched over his essay, Carlos looked like he’d just gotten an electric shock. “Babe!” he said, stunned. Ben looked up from his laptop, pretending (unconvincingly) that he was just noticing his boyfriend. “Your hair is different!”

Evie couldn’t help but scoff to herself. Was “different” really the best word Carlos could think of? Not “beautiful,” not “incredible,” not even “so much better than it was before?”

Ben set his laptop down. He smiled nervously, scratching the back of his freshly styled head. “What do you think?” he stammered. Even though they’d been dating for almost two months now, Ben still tended to act nervous around Carlos at times, as if he were still under constant pressure to try and impress him. It was endearing sometimes, but other times it came off as a little pathetic. This time, it was a little bit of both.

Of course, Carlos either didn’t notice it or he didn’t mind. He sat next to Ben on the couch, still bewildered by the sight of the new hairdo. “I love it!” he exclaimed, reaching up to touch it. “It’s perfect. You look hot.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Evie started to get the sense that Ben and Carlos might want to be alone. Just as she was about to turn to Dizzy and suggest that they leave the room, she heard Ben gasp. She looked to see Ben examining the side of his boyfriend’s head. That was odd.

“How long have you had your ears pierced?” Ben asked Carlos.

“Since… yesterday?” said Carlos, wearing a guilty grin as if he’d just gotten caught stealing a cookie from the kitchen. Evie noticed him fidgeting with a ring on his finger – oh my God, he was wearing Ben’s ring! She covered her mouth to avoid audibly gasping.

Ben held Carlos’s chin between his finger and thumb. He looked so smitten that Evie realized he probably wouldn’t’ve noticed if she’d gasped – hell, he probably wouldn’t look away from Carlos even if she started singing and tap dancing at that moment. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any prettier.”

“Should we leave?” Dizzy blurted out.

The two looked away from each other, now both wearing guilty expressions on their faces. Ben said, “Heh. Sorry, girls. We’ll tone it down.”

Dizzy shrugged. “I guess I should take it as a compliment that you like Ben’s new hair that much, Carlos.”

“What can I say?” Carlos laughed, running a hand through Ben’s hair. “You do good work.”

“Oh! Since I’ve got you both here,” said Evie,” I want to show you my idea for your Halloween costumes!”

Ben’s birthday was on Halloween, so the Royal Family always threw a big costume party for the whole school. Evie loved thinking up couples’ costumes, so she’d taken the liberty of not only coming up with costume ideas for Ben and Carlos, but also sketching out designs for them and, assuming she got the okay from the couple, she’d be making the costumes herself. She saw it as her birthday gift to Ben.

Apparently, Carlos was not on the same page. He said to Evie, “Actually, I’ve already got my costume picked out.”

Ben looked at Carlos in surprise. He clearly wasn’t on the same page either. “Wait, were you not planning on doing a couple’s costume with me?” He didn’t sound mad, just shocked and maybe a little offended.

“In my defense,” said Carlos, “I picked my costume out at the beginning of the semester and before we were dating, to coordinate with Dude. Dude’s going as Little Red Riding Hood, and I’m going as the Big Bad Wolf!”

The look on Ben’s face told Evie that he was just as perplexed as she was. He asked, “But why wouldn’t you have the dog be the wolf?”

“It’s role reversal. It’ll be funny,” Carlos replied. “Plus, Dude’s gonna look so cute in a little red cape!”

“Okay, you are not doing that,” Evie asserted. She didn’t want to be a wet blanket, but her idea was much better. “Let me show you what I dreamed up.” She gestured for the boys to follow her. They got up from the couch and she led them to her studio, where she located her sketch book.

Dizzy also joined them, but mainly just to rummage around Evie’s studio as she often did.

As Evie flipped through the pages of her sketch book, she explained, “A lot of couple’s costumes are for a man and a woman, and I know neither of you is keen on dressing as a woman, so I was trying to think of something fun for you that wasn’t tacky.” She stopped on the page she was looking for. “Here it is,” she said, displaying the drawings for them like a kindergarten teacher reading a picture book to her class. “Ben, you’d be Freddie Mercury, and Carlos, you’d be David Bowie.” She tapped the drawings for emphasis.

“I love it,” said Ben with a smile.

“I… don’t hate it,” said Carlos, tapping his chin in thought.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Evie asked.

“I just don’t see what’s wrong with my idea. I’ve already got my costume and everything.”

“Don’t you think that if you’re doing a couple’s costume, it should be with your boyfriend instead of your dog?”

“Ben can still be included!” Carlos looked at Ben and thought for a moment. “You could be… the granny!” When Ben seemed less than thrilled about that idea, Carlos said, “Oh! Or the lumberjack who saves Red Riding Hood from the wolf! You’d look great in a plaid shirt and a stick-on beard.” Carlos wiggled his eyebrows in a playfully flirtatious way.

Ben chuckled nervously. He was bad at saying no to Carlos, but he was obviously trying to find a way to turn that down. “That’s tempting, but I think I like Evie’s idea more. I mean, look at this!”

When Ben gestured toward Evie’s drawings, she proudly held them up again. “Yes! Look at this, Carlos!” She pointed toward her Bowie costume design for Carlos. “I’ve got the perfect red-and-blue fabric for this vertical-striped shirt-and-pants combo, and adding some funky Bowie shoulder pads should be a breeze. Then we just paint the classic Ziggy Stardust lightning bolt on your face. You’ll look super cool, and way less hairy than a wolf!”

“What about my costume?” Ben asked.

“Do you have a white shirt and a pair of white pants?” Evie asked.

Ben nodded.

“Perfect,” Evie said, referencing her drawing. “Then all I’ll need to make is Freddie Mercury’s signature highlighter-yellow jacket, which should be easy enough. We can also get you a fake mustache if you’re up for it.” Seeing that Carlos still didn’t seem convinced, Evie said, “You both will look great, I promise.”

“But Bowie and Freddie aren’t even fairy tale creatures, they’re just movie characters. Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf are way more recognizable,” Carlos argued.

“Freddie Mercury and David Bowie may be fictional, but they’re still icons,” said Ben. “They’ll be plenty recognizable, especially since we’re both going with their signature looks.”

Evie was getting impatient. “Come on, Carlos! This is for Ben’s birthday party. Can’t you do this one thing for him on his birthday? I promise, we’ll find another time for you to wear your wolf costume.”

Carlos sighed. “But what about Dude? I promised him I’d coordinate costumes with him this year.”

Oh, so that’s what this was all about. “If you’re worried about Dude, you should’ve said something,” said Evie. “I can whip up a costume for him, no problem. What’s another character in that universe who would fit with Bowie and Freddie?”

“Elton John?” Ben suggested.

“Hmm, that could work, but I think we can do better,” said Evie.

“Billy Joel?” Carlos suggested.

“Not recognizable enough. Oh!” An idea struck Evie like a blow dart. “What about Michael Jackson? Dude probably has a red jacket that would work, and then I can make him one sparkly white bootie to look like MJ’s sparkly glove. Easy, recognizable, and adorable!”

Carlos went from skeptical to thrilled so fast that it nearly gave Evie whiplash. “Evie, you magnificent woman, I’m in!”

***

“And what are you two supposed to be?”

Mal turned to see Uma addressing her, with Harry and Gil behind her. Uma was dressed as a cowgirl, and the boys were cowboys for Halloween.

Proudly, Evie declared, “We’re the main girls from the musical Chicago! I’m Roxie, and Mal’s Velma.” She fluffed her short blonde wig.

Uma puffed. “Tacky. What, did you make those costumes yourselves?”

Evie smoothed out her little sparkly black dress. “Yep. Everything besides the wigs and the shoes.”

“What did you have to do to blackmail Princess into dressing up like that?” Uma asked, referring to Mal’s Velma costume.

Looking down at her sparkly white dress, Mal grumbled. Yes, it was different than anything she’d normally wear, but this was a Halloween party. Everyone was dressed differently. That was the whole point. “Uma,” said Mal, “Do you want something, or did you just stop by to irritate us?”

With that, Uma glared at Mal, then turned to walk back inside, where the DJ and most of the party was. The boys followed her.

What the heck was that?

Mal was ready to let it go and just try to enjoy the party, but Evie put a hand on her shoulder. “Something seems off about Uma today,” Evie said. “Maybe you should go talk to her.”

Mal normally wouldn’t see much point in trying to talk things out with Uma, since she was kind of always a bitch to her. Still, Mal had noticed a change in Uma lately too. It was just over the past few weeks, ever since Ben and Carlos’s relationship had gone public and since Mal and Evie had gotten together, that Uma seemed more jaded and bitter than just her normal pirate-like unpleasantness.

“If you think that’ll help,” said Mal. “I’ll be back.” She followed Uma back inside.

When she was finally able to pull Uma away from the boys and the crowd, going to a corner of the Auradon Castle throne room, Mal yelled over the too-loud music at her rival. “I don’t get you, Uma. Why do you seem to be the only person in the room who can never have a good time? This is a Halloween party, dammit, and instead of trying to have fun, all you want to do is say mean stuff to me and my girlfriend?”

Mal realized that this was something she’d wanted to ask Uma for a long time. Even though Mal and Uma were on better terms than they once were, Uma still loved trying to show Mal how tough she was, but to what end? She never tried to hurt or rob Mal like she used to back on the Isle, so it seemed like a big waste of time in Mal’s opinion.

Uma scowled at her. “Why do you care?”

“Because,” said Mal, “you keep saying you want to be friends, but all you ever do is act like a bitch to me. So, what’s the truth? Are you my friend, or do you hate me?”

“You really want the truth?”

“Yes. I’m sick of this.”

“Fine.” Before Mal realized what was happening, Uma took a step closer, put a hand on the back of Mal’s head, and forcefully pulled her in for a kiss. Despite the shock of it all, Mal didn’t hate the feeling. She didn’t exactly like being kissed against her will like that, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t find Uma’s aggression attractive, and Uma’s lips felt good against hers. Still, Mal was too shocked to kiss her back, and the kiss ended when Uma let go of the back of Mal’s head.

Mal stared at Uma, bewildered. Uma was still glaring, though now, some of Mal’s red lipstick had come off on Uma’s lips.

“There. Now you know what my problem is,” growled Uma. “I have terrible taste in women.”

For once in her life, Uma had managed to genuinely frighten Mal. Mal stammered, her mouth flapping but no words coming out. What just happened? Did anyone else see that? Was it even real?

“Mal!” Evie’s voice. Mal turned her head to see Evie running to her, holding the blonde Roxie wig in place on her head.

Uma rolled her eyes. “I guess I should leave you and your knight in sparkly armor alone.” She turned to leave, but Evie ran up and grabbed her arm along with Mal’s.

Evie glared at Uma. “Kissing someone without her consent is never okay,” she scolded. “M, are you okay?” Her tone instantly shifted for Mal, becoming soft and loving.

Was Mal okay? She felt weird, but she wasn’t sure if it was good weird or bad weird. Maybe what she was mainly feeling was confusion as she tried to process what this all meant. Uma had feelings for Mal? Is that what’s been happening all these years, between the gang fights and the kidnappings and the sabotage? How? Why? “I just have so many questions,” Mal managed to say.

Mal and Uma stared at each other for a moment, neither of them daring to speak first, and poor Evie was caught in the middle. Mal could only imagine how her girlfriend felt after watching that event unfold…

But when Mal looked at Evie, she saw Evie quirk up a curious eyebrow. She didn’t seem sad or angry or hurt – in fact, if Mal didn’t know any better, she’d say that none of this had even surprised Evie. “Well, Uma,” Evie said, “I’m at least glad you were finally honest with your feelings.”

“What?” said Mal.

Uma rolled her eyes. “I should’ve guessed you already knew,” she grumbled.

Mal blinked. “E, how long did you know Uma liked me?”

“It’s been obvious for years, baby,” Evie replied coolly.

“And you never told me?” Mal asked. “Why?” Her black bob wig was starting to feel too tight.

Shaking her head with a smile, Evie smoothed out her little sparkly black dress. “Because you’re stubborn and you wouldn’t’ve believed me,” she snarked.

Groaning bitterly, Uma said, “Ugh, I hate watching you two flirting. I’m outta here. Princesses.”

“Wait,” Mal found herself saying. Uma and Evie both paused to look at her curiously. Both expected her to say something, but she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t even know why she didn’t want Uma to leave.

Uma, always as smooth as could be, tilted her cowboy hat up. “What am I waiting on?” she asked impatiently.

Mal and Evie exchanged a look. Evie, so good at reading Mal that it was sometimes scary, nodded. Mal faced Uma. “I’m sorry that I didn’t know,” she started. “But things don’t have to be this way. We can be together.” One of Mal’s hands took Evie’s, and the other reached out for Uma. “All three of us.”

Uma paused, glancing from Mal to Evie. She looked uncertain for a moment until a rare smile graced her face. She took Mal’s hand.

They danced together the rest of the night: Roxie, Velma, and a cowgirl.


	8. Chapter 8

Carlos opened his eyes after kissing Ben again. Ben’s eyes were still closed, but they opened when Carlos started speaking. “Hey, I got you a gift.”

Ben smiled, and Carlos noticed that some of his David Bowie face paint had rubbed off on Ben’s cheek, leaving a red-and-blue smudge. It was cute, in a way, but he was glad the party was over and they were in the privacy of Ben’s room so nobody else would see it and get the wrong idea. “I told you that you didn’t have to get me anything,” said Ben.

Heat rose in Carlos’s cheeks and ears. “I know, but it’s your birthday, and you’re always getting me stuff even when it’s not a special occasion. It’s nothing big, I promise.” He reached under the couch where he’d hidden Ben’s gift before the party and found the tiny box. It was wrapped in a delicate blue wrapping paper. He handed it to Ben.

“You hid my birthday gift in my room?” Ben asked with a smirk. “You’re cheeky.”

“Open it,” Carlos said, his face feeling even hotter.

Ben unwrapped the royal blue wrapping paper to find a red jewelry box. He opened the little box and there was Carlos’s gift: a ring, one that Carlos prayed didn’t look too much like an engagement ring. It was a silver band with black numbers inscribed across the top. “What do the numbers mean?” Ben asked, reading them.

“It’s…” Carlos’s face got so hot that he felt like he had a fever. “It’s the exact latitude and longitude where we first met.” He played with his own ring, the one Ben had given him. “I made it on my 3-D printer. I figured since you gave me your ring, maybe you’d like a new ring for yourself.” Realizing he was rambling, he stopped talking. How did Ben still manage to make Carlos feel this way? They’d spent the whole night together, arm-in-arm, through the whole party, but being alone with Ben and giving him a birthday gift still had all of Carlos’s nerves firing in different directions.

“Carlos,” Ben said, looking from the ring to Carlos, “That is so thoughtful of you. Thank you. I love it.” His hazel eyes became wet with happy tears. He pulled Carlos in for a hug so warm and comfortable that it calmed Carlos’s nerves.

Ben kissed Carlos’s cheek (probably smearing more of Carlos’s face paint). He kissed the corner of Carlos’s mouth. He kissed Carlos’s lips. He kissed Carlos’s lips a few more times before slipping his tongue into Carlos’s mouth, something they’d very recently started doing, and Carlos was suddenly grateful that Ben had already removed his stick-on mustache from his Freddie Mercury costume.

As they continued making out, Ben’s hands moved. One found its way to the side of Carlos’s neck, and the other slid up his thigh. He didn’t mind a gentle touch or two in the swimsuit area, but it was getting late and Carlos realized he’d eaten too much chocolate at the party. He was crashing fast.

Separating his lips from Ben’s, Carlos said, “Hey, I’m tired. I should head back to my dorm.”

“You don’t have to leave,” said Ben. He seemed to catch himself. “I mean, you could stay. You should. Please?”

Carlos wasn’t sure what the implication behind Ben’s words was supposed to be, but he didn’t think he liked it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, babe. Aren’t people gonna think we’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing?”

“No such thing,” Ben replied, squeezing Carlos’s thigh. “It’s my birthday. I can do whatever I want.” He leaned in for another kiss, but Carlos stopped him.

“But, aren’t kings and queens supposed to wait until marriage?”

Ben scrunched his eyebrows together, confused. “No, what made you think that?” His eyes widened as he realized something. “Do you… think I’m a virgin?”

Carlos’s mouth went dry. This conversation just kept getting more awkward. “Um, I mean, are you?”

“No.” Ben paused. “…Are you?”

Staring at his lap, at his red-and-blue striped David Bowie costume pants, Carlos wished the couch underneath him would swallow him whole. “I mean, yeah, I am.” he mumbled.

“You and Jane never went that far?”

“Jane’s asexual.” Carlos looked up, and when he met Ben’s eyes, a startling realization hit him. “Wait. Does that mean that you and Mal—” He covered his mouth, shocked by his own words.

But Ben didn’t seem to see what the big deal was. “Well, yeah. We were engaged for a while.”

“But I thought you were gay.”

“I am, but I didn’t know it back when I was with Mal.”

Carlos was suddenly acutely aware of Ben’s hand still resting on his thigh. It had felt good before, but now it felt tingly, like an itch. He pushed Ben’s hand off him. Shaking his head, he stood up, saying, “I’m sorry. This is too weird. I gotta go home.”

“No, don’t go yet,” said Ben. He sounded sad, even a little desperate. “We don’t have to go all the way if you’re not ready for that. We could just snuggle if you want. Or, we don’t even have to do that. I can sleep on the couch and let you take the bed.”

Carlos shook his head, trying not to seem panicky. He couldn’t get the thought of Ben and Mal out of his mind – how _weird_ that was. Mal was like his sister. Who sleeps with a girl and then tries to get with her brother? “No. I can’t. I’m sorry. It’s not your fault, it’s just… tonight’s not a good night. Maybe some other time.”

He turned to leave, but Ben said, “Wait.” He stopped. “Can I at least walk you home?”

“I’d prefer to go alone.” Carlos opened the door out to the hallway. “Goodnight.”

Carlos walked back to his dorm in the cold, carrying his sleeping dog who was still dressed as Michael Jackson. He played his conversation with Ben over and over in his head, trying to figure out what it all meant.

Maybe he’d overreacted to the whole Mal thing. He should’ve seen that one coming. The more important truth was, Ben wanted to sleep with Carlos. Carlos wouldn’t be his first, so maybe Ben really was ready to make that step in their relationship, but to Carlos, two months of dating felt like no time at all. Then again, he’d known Ben for over a year. What was the appropriate time to wait? Would Ben get impatient and frustrated if Carlos took too long? Or worse, would Ben think that Carlos was pushing him away?

A bitter breeze made Carlos shiver. He needed to get some sleep.

When Carlos got back to his dorm, Jay was already in bed, staring at his phone.

“Hey,” said Jay, not looking up from his phone.

“Hey,” said Carlos. He set still-sleeping Dude down in his doggy bed. “I thought you were going over to some girl’s place tonight.”

“I did, but I struck out with her.” Jay sighed, putting his phone down. “Girls are so weird. They’ll dress in hot costumes and flirt with you all night, then the moment you get them alone, they don’t even wanna kiss you. What’s up with that?”

It was rare for Jay to come to Carlos with his problems – mainly because Jay liked to pretend that he didn’t have problems – but Carlos didn’t like what his friend seemed to be implying. “She didn’t owe you anything just because of the way she dressed or acted,” he protested, though his voice sounded quiet and lame even to him.

“That doesn’t mean I have to like being shafted like that,” Jay retorted.

Reflexively, Carlos winced. He couldn’t help but think of how he’d just ran from Ben – he hadn’t intended to hurt Ben’s feelings, he’d just panicked. Would Ben take it that way?

“You okay, man?” Jay asked. Carlos realized he’d probably been making a face. Oops.

“I’m fine. Just tired.”

“Long night with Benny bear?”

Carlos shivered, still recovering from walking home in the cold. “I don’t wanna talk about it,” he sighed as he approached his dresser to get some pajamas.

Jay sat partially up in bed. He gave Carlos a serious look. “Do I gotta smash his teeth in?”

“No. He’s fine. It’s fine. It’s just weird. I really don’t wanna talk about it.” He finally got the chance to get out of his costume and into some warm pajamas. They provided less comfort then he’d thought.

Maybe he should text Ben.

***

Ben lay in bed watching his phone. He kept debating texting Carlos, apologizing for making tonight awkward, but how would he even say it? Should he even say anything, or was it best to leave him alone?

What a way to spend the night of his eighteenth birthday: lying in bed, alone, wondering if he’d completely blown it with his boyfriend. How did this keep happening to him? Their relationship always seemed so perfect until it wasn’t, and that scared Ben. He wished there were some way he could find out if there was a future for them…

Ben sat up. Maybe there was one way to tell.

That night, Ben snuck out of the castle, alone. He made his way to the Museum of Cultural History in the darkness. When he got there, the door was locked. He knocked. A guard approached the door, one Ben recognized through the window as the night shift guard who’d reviewed security footage with him when he’d suspected that someone may have meddled with Mal’s spell book. Surely this guard would be willing to help him again.

The guard looked at Ben through the window. He seemed startled by Ben’s presence but opened the door anyway. “Your majesty,” the old man gasped, “what are you doing here at such a late hour?”

“I was wondering if you could do me a favor,” Ben started as he entered the museum. “Do you know where the magic mirror is?”

“Evie’s magic mirror?” asked the guard. “Yes, it’s on the second floor, in the hall of villains.”

Ben asked, “Could I borrow it?”

The guard followed Ben’s request and opened the case where Evie’s magic hand mirror was kept. Unable to wait until he got home, Ben sat on the floor of the museum, held the mirror up to his face, and recited the spell he’d looked up on the way to the museum:

“Mirror mirror, what does our future hold? Show me what will happen when our stories unfold.”

Ben watched as his reflection in the mirror rippled, then faded into a scene of the future. He saw himself walking the halls of Auradon Castle, with a handful of guards on either side of him. Seemingly out of nowhere, he grabbed a nearby member of the Royal Guard by the wrist and pulled him around a corner. Ben didn’t quite understand why, until he got a better look and noticed that the guard was… Carlos!

Carlos was going to make it onto the Royal Guard! Not that that should be too surprising: he was one of the most capable people Ben knew. He and his friends had already saved Ben’s life more than once.

In the mirror’s vision, Carlos said, “Babe, I’m on duty. You’re gonna get me in trouble.”

“In trouble with who?” Ben said, stroking Carlos’s freckled cheek.

Carlos rolled his eyes, but he didn’t shy away from the touch. “Uh, with my boss.”

“But I’m your boss’s boss, so he can’t do anything to you without my okay.” Ben kissed Carlos’s cheek. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he’s an incel.”

“Hey, don’t talk bad about Pierre. I actually really like him,” Carlos protested.

“Whatever,” said Ben. He leaned in closer. “When does your shift end?”

A dark, sexy smile crept up onto Carlos’s face. “Ten. Can you be a good boy and wait that long?”

Ben nodded eagerly. The vision in the mirror rippled and faded, and soon Ben was staring at his own reflection again.

What? That was how the vision ended? Ben had to see more! Would Carlos really eventually get the confident, that _dominant?_ Would that attitude translate into the more private areas of their relationship too? “Magic mirror, show me more!” Ben demanded.

He assumed the mirror would show him a continuation of the previous scene, but the ripple of his reflection faded into a vision of him sleeping in bed. Ben could see that he had a beard this time, so it was likely months or years after the previous vision, where he was clean-shaven.

The sound of a crying baby came from a monitor by the bed, waking Ben up. If that weren’t enough of a surprise, someone else in the bed stirred at the noise, and Carlos’s head emerged from under the covers.

If they had a baby together and were sharing a bed, then that had to mean that they were married! Ben was going to marry Carlos! And they were going to have a kid! A warmth spread in Ben’s chest at the very thought.

The mirror showed Carlos getting out of bed. Ben rolled over to face him, saying, “Honey, the baby has a nanny for a reason. You don’t have to—”

“It’s fine,” Carlos interrupted sleepily. “I want to.” He left the room.

A few minutes passed. The baby monitor picked up the sound of Carlos whispering, but the crying baby made it hard to hear what he was saying. Soon, the crying stopped, and Ben heard Carlos humming quietly. He wished he could see what Carlos was doing, and he wished he could see the baby. He could only imagine how beautiful that baby would be – he wondered if it was a boy or a girl.

Carlos returned to the bedroom. As he got back in bed, Ben asked, “What was it this time? A dirty diaper?”

“No, she was hungry,” replied Carlos, scooting close to Ben to spoon him.

She. They had a little princess. Ben was so excited that he wanted to sing, to tell the whole world that he’d one day have a daughter with the person he loved.

The vision in the mirror rippled and faded once more, but Ben was hooked. He spent the rest of that night on the floor of the museum, asking the magic mirror to show him more, more, more. He never wanted the stories to end.


	9. Chapter 9

“Jay, this is not funny! Give it back!” Carlos jumped and tried to snatch the item out of Jay’s hand, but Jay was holding it too high for Carlos to reach. He was panicked, not sure what Jay might do with it.

Jay jumped up on the table in their dorm, still holding his hand in a fist above his head. “No. Not until you tell me why you still have it,” he said in a singsong voice. He started waving the necklace back and forth by its chain, taunting Carlos with the name it bore:

Jarlos.

Jane had given the necklace back to him after she’d dumped him, not willing to try and make a long-distance relationship work when she and her mom were preparing to move to Far Far Away to live with her grandma. Carlos probably shouldn’t have kept it, but he didn’t have the heart to get rid of it. He liked the necklace. It made him think of Jane. It made him wonder what things would’ve been like if she hadn’t moved away. Not only would Jane always be Carlos’s first love, but she was also an amazing girl, and he missed her.

“It’s none of your business why I still have it!” Carlos practically shrieked. “It’s mine! Give it back!”

“As your best friend, I’m making it my business. Now tell me or I’ll put it in my mouth,” Jay threatened. He dangled the necklace above his open mouth, slowly lowering it…

Carlos shouted, “No! Don’t! I’ll tell you.” Jay closed his mouth, his interest piqued. “It’s… just in case,” he said sheepishly, adjusting the ring on his finger.

Holding the necklace in his palm and examining it, Jay asked, “In case what?”

“I dunno. In case I need it, I guess?” Carlos felt his cheeks flushing. He’d hoped he would never have to have this conversation with anyone.

Jay’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean, like, in case Jane comes back?”

Carlos couldn’t stand to hold eye contact with Jay. He looked at the floor, embarrassed and even a little ashamed. “I mean…” He shrugged.

“Carlos, you wouldn’t,” Jay said in disbelief, finally stepping down from the table.

Carlos would like to say that he wouldn’t get back with Jane after she’d ripped his heart out with their sudden breakup, but that wouldn’t be honest. He wasn’t proud of it, but he knew he still had feelings for her, despite his strong feelings for Ben. He swallowed. “Well, uh, who knows what the future holds? Y’know, if things don’t work out with Ben…” He trailed off. Was he having second thoughts about Ben because of what had happened last night? No. He still loved Ben. He just wanted that stupid necklace back.

Dude strolled up and pawed at Carlos’s leg. “Hey,” the pup said, “I hate to interrupt, but I really have to pee. Can we go outside?”

Carlos was thankful for the distraction. “Yeah. Go get your leash,” he told Dude.

“I’ll go, too,” said Jay. “I wanna talk this out with you.”

That wasn’t what Carlos had hoped Jay would say. He’d hoped Jay would drop the topic completely, but that wasn’t something Jay would do. Carlos knew that Jay was too stubborn to be turned down, so instead of trying to tell him not to go with them, Carlos resigned himself to letting Jay join him in taking Dude out for a potty break.

As they walked out of the dorm with Dude on his leash, Carlos expected Jay to keep pestering him about Jane. Instead, Jay asked, “Something happened last night, didn’t it?”

Oh no. Jay was assuming that Carlos was having problems with Ben. Was Carlos having problems with Ben? Last night’s events weren’t so bad that he wanted to break up with Ben, but…

Apparently, Carlos stayed silent for too long, and Jay took that silence as a yes. “Ugh, I knew it. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“No, no, I swear he didn’t,” Carlos said quickly. He knew that Jay’s threats to curb stomp Ben if he hurt Carlos were real threats and not just jokes like most people probably assumed. “He just… asked me to stay over last night.”

Almost missing the first step down the stairs of the dorm building, Jay said, “Wow. That’s—”

“A huge step. I know,” Carlos interrupted. He appreciated that Jay understood the gravity of Ben’s request, even though Jay himself was used to casual hook-ups. “That’s why I was all… squirrely last night.”

Dude’s ears perked up. “Squirrel? Where?”

Carlos groaned. “There’s no squirrel, Dude. We’re not even outside yet.”

“Well, damn,” said Jay. “I guess it’s good that you and Ben got to have that conversation.”

“There wasn’t really much of a conversation,” Carlos admitted.

“Hm?”

“I kinda just left. I was tired and freaked out and wanted to go home.”

“Bro, he’s gonna think you don’t like him!” They got to the exit of the building. Jay opened the door for Carlos and Dude. “You do like him, right?”

Stepping outside with his dog, Carlos said, “Yes, of course I like him. I love him. I just don’t know how to talk about… that.”

As Dude sniffed around for the perfect place to pee, Carlos heard someone behind him calling his name.

“Carlos!” It was Ben’s voice. Carlos turned around to see Ben hurrying toward him. His heart jumped for a moment, worried that Ben was mad at him, but as Ben got closer, Carlos saw a big smile on his face.

With Ben there, Carlos wondered if anyone was hiding in the bushes, ready to take their picture for whatever gossip column they worked for. That happened to the couple often. Luckily, Carlos looked okay – he wore a pair of light-washed jeans, a puffy black coat, and a red beanie he’d borrowed from Jay, so he would’ve been okay with sneaky paparazzi getting his picture in that outfit. “Hi Ben,” Carlos said when Ben was close.

“Oh my God, I was just on my way to come find you,” said Ben. He gave Carlos a huge hug, out of breath and obviously thrilled about something. “I have amazing news.” 

Trying not to act uncomfortable around his boyfriend in public, Carlos hugged Ben back. It felt awkward, since last night had ended on such a bizarre note. “What’s the news?” he asked.

Ben released Carlos from his hug, but he kept a hold on his shoulders. Up close, Carlos noticed that Ben’s eyes were red along the edges, as if he were high or hadn’t slept all night. Either option seemed possible with how giddy he seemed. Giving Carlos a smile so big that it looked like it would hurt, Ben said, “You and I are going to get married!”

“What?” said Carlos. He felt like he’d just gotten hit on the back of the head.

“What?” said Jay, standing behind Carlos.

“No, we’re not,” Carlos insisted. “You haven’t even asked me yet.” He swiped Ben’s hands off his shoulders. “Also, I’m way too young to get married!”

“I know. I didn’t mean now. Just… eventually. Maybe even soon. I wasn’t sure at first, but now I am.” He reached up to touch Carlos’s face, but Carlos grabbed his hand before it landed on him.

“Ben,” said Carlos, gently lowering Ben’s hand. “Are you okay? You’re acting all crazy.”

Ben just kept smiling. “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. I saw it all in the mirror.”

“In the mirror?”

“Yes. Evie’s magic mirror.”

Though that explanation gave Ben’s craziness a little more rationality to it, it also opened up a slew of other questions.

Jay came up to stand next to Carlos. “Ben, did you steal the magic mirror out of the museum?” Jay asked.

“No. Of course not. I just borrowed it,” Ben replied.

“Why?” asked Carlos. “I thought you didn’t like magic.”

Ben took Carlos’s hands. Usually, Carlos would love holding Ben’s hands like that, but this time it made him uncomfortable, like he was tethered to Ben. “Using magic was worth it to see what I saw. I love you so much, Carlos, and I had to know that we have a future together. And we do. We’ll get married and have two beautiful daughters together. I’ll be right by your side when our daughters are born, and you’ll be by mine when I get my appendix out –” Ben stopped himself. “Oh no, that means I’m gonna need to get my appendix taken out!”

But Ben’s future appendectomy was the least of Carlos’s worries. Ben was talking about marriage and babies! It was way too soon for that. They were still high schoolers, and Carlos wouldn’t even turn eighteen until the summer. Thinking about settling down and starting a family always made him anxious, but this was worse than usual – Ben had sought out the things that made Carlos anxious. He’d even gone so far as to use magic, something he was constantly warning people against, to do something so clearly against Carlos’s wishes to take their relationship slow.

So, not only was Carlos anxious, but he was also hurt. Angry, even. He remembered Jane’s necklace, and he realized that things didn’t have to be this way.

Carlos shook his head at Ben. “I can’t believe you,” he said, the shakiness of his voice surprising him. He must’ve been closer to crying than he’d realized. “That’s it. This isn’t gonna work out.”

It hurt him to say those words, but he didn’t know what else there was to be done. Ben clearly didn’t listen to words like “slow down” or “stop,” so Carlos had to stop this himself before his whole life became a whirlwind out of his control.

Carlos took Ben’s signet ring off his finger. “Take this back.”

“What?” Ben stammered. “Why?”

“Because I thought this would get better over time, but it’s only getting worse, and you don’t seem to have a problem with that.” Each word stung, and Carlos tried and failed to hold back tears. He put the ring in Ben’s hand, forcing him to take it.

Jay tried to step in. “Carlos—”

“Don’t,” said Carlos. “Just don’t. I need to get out of here.” He turned his back on Ben as hot tears rolled down his cheeks. “Do not follow me.”

As Carlos walked away, Jay muttered, “Holy crap. He’s really not okay.” He faced Ben, and Ben looked weirdly calm. He held his signet ring in his hand, turning it over contemplatively, but he didn’t seem worried at all that he’d just made Carlos cry and run away. “Hello? Did you see what just happened?”

Ben took a breath, still looking at the ring. “He’ll be back. He has to. The magic mirror said we’d end up together.”

Jay always thought that Ben could be a little oblivious – back when he used to steal stuff, he’d gotten away with stealing Ben’s wallet more than once – but now Ben was just being plain stupid. Whether Ben was blinded by love or sleep deprived, Jay still felt pity for him. “That’s not how that works,” said Jay.

“Not how what works?”

“The mirror’s visions are subject to change, Ben.”

Ben blinked, clearly not putting together what Jay was telling him. “But the mirror doesn’t lie.”

Jay groaned. He was really going to need to spell this whole thing out for Ben. “You can still change the future, though. It’s like…” He thought about an example he could use. “Like if I asked the magic mirror ‘where’s my hat?’ and then I moved my hat. That doesn’t mean the mirror lied, I just changed something to make the mirror wrong.”

“Oh,” said Ben, nodding. “That makes sense.”

“Yeah. And I’m no fortune teller, but it looks to me like you just moved a big piece of your future in the wrong direction.”

Ben sucked in a huge gasp. He cursed. The sound seemed foreign coming from someone as polite as Ben. “Jay, this is bad. This is really bad,” he panicked. “I need to get him back. I need to go after him. I need to—”

“Hang on,” Jay interrupted. “He explicitly told us not to follow him, and even if he didn’t, do you have any idea where he might be going?”

Stopping to stare at the ground, Ben admitted, “I guess I don’t.” He raked his fingers through his short, dark hair. “I need to find him.”

Dude cleared his throat, making Jay flinch. He didn’t realize Dude was still there. Nobody was even holding his leash – he was just hanging out. “Just an educated guess here, but since he left me behind, I’d say he’s probably going to see his mom.”

“Cruella?” Ben asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

Jay cursed. “If that’s the case, then this is really bad.”

“Why is it bad that Carlos is visiting his mother?”

“She’s not good to him. His therapist keeps telling him to cut her out of his life, but he won’t. This could mean some serious backwards progress for him.”

“Wait. Carlos goes to _therapy?_ ”

Pressing his lips together, Jay sighed. “You’d be hard pressed to find a VK who doesn’t need therapy, Ben.”

Ben opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Sorry,” he practically whispered. “I need to get Carlos back and save him from his mom.”

“That means you’ll probably have to confront her.”

“Cruella doesn’t scare me.”

Jay thought for a moment. “Then no evil thing will. I’m not letting you go alone. The last time I let you out of my sight on that side of the bridge, you got yourself kidnapped by sea pirates.” Though Jay didn’t exactly like the idea of helping Ben “get Carlos back” after he’d just made such an ass of himself, he knew that Ben would cross the bridge alone if he had to, and Jay couldn’t have that. At the very least, he had to go and make sure Ben would make it back safely. Even with the barrier down, the Isle still wasn’t a place where the King should be caught without someone to defend him.

***

Evie stood next to Uma, who was making a big pot of coffee. With Mal still in bed, she realized this would be the perfect time to have a one-on-one conversation with Mal’s new, second girlfriend. “So,” Evie said, scooting a little closer, “does this mean I can call you my girlfriend, too?”

Uma turned away from the coffee pot to face Evie, leaning one hip against the granite countertop in her classic Uma nonchalance. She smiled sleepily. “You can call me whatever you want, Perky.”

Evie was so excited that she felt an odd buzzing in her scalp. Uma had stayed over one night, and she already had a pet name for Evie? Evie blurted out another question: “Does this mean you’re gonna move in with us?”

“Woah,” said Uma, blinking in surprise. “Uh, I dunno? Maybe? I haven’t really thought that far ahead.” She glanced at the half-full coffee pot. “Would you want me to?”

“Of course,” Evie replied with a grin. She swore she saw a faint blush cross Uma’s cheeks. “Only if you want to, though. But this castle has plenty of bedrooms, so you wouldn’t have to share with me or Mal all the time.”

Uma chuckled adorably. “I’ll think about it.”

Another question crossed Evie’s mind. “Hey… what’s this gonna mean for Harry and Gil?”

“Do you always ask this many questions this soon after waking up?” Uma retorted, but more in a playful way than out of annoyance.

“Heh. Sorry. I guess I’m just excited.” Evie grabbed Uma’s hand. It was warm and soft, like a hug. The two girls leaned in toward each other as if magnetized. Evie closed her eyes, and Uma planted a gentle kiss on her lips. Uma was an amazing kisser, so even a small kiss like that was more exhilarating than any amount of coffee.

Evie opened her eyes when she heard Mal’s door open. She and Uma broke away from their kiss, though Evie could tell there was no way Mal hadn’t seen them – she was staring directly at them, smirking. “I guess I don’t have to worry that you two won’t get along,” Mal quipped, running a hand through her purple bedhead.

Evie was about to reply with a jab of her own, but before she could, Uma put an arm around her waist and pulled her in closer. The gesture was unexpected enough that heat rushed to Evie’s face. Puffing out her chest as she held Evie, Uma said, “You got a problem with it, Princess? The early bird gets the girl, so next time, try not to oversleep.”

Mal and Uma’s banter was adorable to Evie, and she couldn’t help but relish being in the center of it. She’d wanted the three of them to be together like that for a long time, but she’d always known that she could never have initiated it – Mal and Uma were both too stubborn. And a little oblivious.

The coffee maker beeped, indicating it was done brewing. Mal sighed as if in relief. “Bless you two for making coffee,” she said, approaching where the other two were standing by the full pot. She gave them each a kiss as she grabbed three mugs. Evie, with Uma’s arm still around her waist, poured coffee for all three of them.

Just as the three girls settled in with their caffeinated drinks and Evie started to ponder real food for breakfast, Mal’s and Evie’s phones buzzed at the same time. That usually meant it was a group text. Mal got her phone out first. She read it, then groaned. “Okay, girls, finish your coffee fast. I guess we got stuff to do today.”

Wondering what was up, Evie fished out her phone. She was right about the group text, except the group was just Mal, Evie, and Jay. No Carlos.

_Jay: requesting backup_

_Jay: meet me at cruella’s place asap. details to follow_

Evie hated it when Jay said stuff like “details to follow,” but this sounded urgent. Especially if it involved Cruella.

***

Send.

Jay had no idea what was about to transpire, but he had a feeling he’d want Mal and Evie there. He approached the Isle, Ben following behind him, but he paused when they reached the end of the magical bridge.

For a brief moment, he forgot there wasn’t a barrier there. He still sensed a different energy at the entrance to the Isle, even though the barrier was down and the bridge was functional – he sensed danger. He turned to look at Ben. Ben looked nervous, vulnerable.

“Here, take my hand,” said Jay, extending a hand to Ben.

Ben took a half step back as if offended. “You want me to hold your hand?”

Clenching his jaw in frustration, Jay said, “Don’t get the wrong idea. I just don’t want you wandering off and getting yourself hurt. Do you want my help or not?” He re-extended his hand to insist that Ben take it.

Ben nodded hesitantly, then did as he was told. That guy really had to work on his issue with non-romantic touch if he was going to keep hanging out with their friend group.

Together, they crossed the threshold to the Isle.

The place was still dingy, most of the people still living there either being content with their way of life or unable to move away. There were, however, new things popping up on the Isle from time to time: a few restaurants, a real grocery store, and even public infrastructure improvements like streetlights. None of it was new to Jay. His father still lived on the Isle, and Jay made a point to visit him at least once a month. Unlike Carlos’s mother, Jafar was at least trying to do better as a parent. He still fell back on old habits from time to time – Jay sometimes had to stop him from slipping things into his pockets when they went shopping – but at least he was making a real effort to improve.

Cruella, on the other hand, still saw nothing wrong with her ways. She treated everyone around her like trash, especially Carlos. Jay had once seen her force him to inhale her cigarette smoke and blow it outside repeatedly for her, just so she didn’t have to get off the couch. It had made poor Carlos sick later that day. Jay didn’t want to think what was happening at Cruella’s house today, after Carlos hadn’t spoken to her for months.


	10. Chapter 10

Every step they got closer to Cruella’s place, Jay had to try harder to resist the temptation to let go of Ben and sprint there. But even if he didn’t have Ben to look after, he knew this situation had to be handled delicately. He couldn’t just charge in; he had to be careful to avoid scaring Carlos or provoking his mother.

Cruella had an apartment on the fourth floor of a beat-up building that was far beyond any “vintage charm.” Jay led Ben up the carpeted stairs – many of the steps appearing stained from God knows what – to the fourth floor. He didn’t remember the apartment number, but he knew which one it was because the fluorescent ceiling light outside the door always flickered obnoxiously.

As they neared that flickering light, the door across from Cruella’s apartment opened. Out came a brick wall of a man, who mean-mugged Jay and Ben. He sauntered past them, intentionally bumping Ben’s shoulder. Ben couldn’t hide his shock.

“What was that for?” Ben whispered to Jay as the man headed down the stairs.

Jay shrugged. “He probably recognized you. A lot of people on the Isle still don’t like you.”

Ben opened his mouth, but stopped when Cruella’s voice came loudly from her apartment.

“I’m glad you’ve finally realized you belong with me. It’s just like when you were a baby: you’d cry and cry unless Mommy was around.”

Barely audible, Carlos defeatedly muttered, “Yes, Mom.”

“I mean, really,” Cruella continued, “you have the worst taste in girls _and_ boys. That Jane girl was a complete cow, and King Ben? Nothing but a pig.”

At that, Ben looked ready to bust down the door and charge into Cruella’s apartment, but Jay put an arm in front of him to hold him back.

Carlos said, “Don’t talk bad about Jane, Mom.”

Jay had a feeling this would only get uglier.

Knowing that most of the residents in this building didn’t bother locking their doors when they were home, Jay tried the door. It was locked. Normally, he would try to pick the lock, but he didn’t have anything he could use as a lockpick.

What else was there to do? Knock on the door? No, Cruella wouldn’t just let them in if they knocked. Kick the door down? No, the noise would draw too much attention from the neighbors. What was that spell Mal could use for opening doors? Jay had never tried doing a spell on his own before, but it was worth a shot.

“Make it easy, make it quick, open up without a kick,” Jay whispered, extending a hand toward the door. The door instantly flew open. “Holy crap, it worked?” he said to himself, probably louder than he should have.

“Jay?” came Carlos’s startled voice.

Jay looked up and saw Carlos standing behind his mother, who was sitting in a plush chair in the living room of her apartment with her back to him. It looked like Jay and Ben had interrupted Carlos giving his mom a back rub – he had his hands on her shoulders. Both Carlos and Cruella stared at the intruders, lit cigarettes hanging out of their lips.

“I told you not to follow me,” Carlos growled.

“Carlos,” said Ben, taking a step forward so he was next to Jay instead of behind him, “you smoke?”

Carlos bared his teeth. “My habits are none of your business.”

“Yes, they are! You never told me that.”

Looking Ben up and down, Cruella stood up. “King Ben.” She took a step toward him.

Ben seemed to immediately forget the cigarette, instead poorly masking his fear of the villain in front of him. “Ms. De Vil, I’m sorry we had to meet like this,” he said, standing his ground as she got closer.

Cruella stuck up her nose at Ben. “Your jawline is even more horrendous in person than on TV.”

Shocked like he’d just gotten smacked, Ben put a hand on his jaw. “What?” he stammered. Jay knew that Cruella was an expert at deep-cutting insults – Carlos used to tell him that she could make a grown man cry with as few as two words – and it was obvious that Cruella had zeroed in on a big insecurity of Ben’s.

With Ben caught off guard, Cruella went in for a verbal attack. “Do you really think you can come into my home and take my Carlos away from me? After you betrayed his trust? You don’t deserve my special little guy.”

Carlos was obviously using his mom as a wedge between himself and Ben. He hadn’t moved from behind the chair she’d just gotten up from, silently hugging himself and taking rapid puffs from his cigarette. Jay wanted to snatch that thing out of his mouth and stomp it out, but he knew that would only make things worse. This whole episode – leaving Ben, spending time with his mother, and _smoking_ again – consisted of things Jay wished he could just tell Carlos to freaking not do. It was all bad for Carlos.

Well, the leaving Ben thing was a bit of a gray area. It was hard to tell if that was bad for him or not at this point, but it had seemed like Carlos had been happy with Ben until today. Was Carlos protecting himself, or was he self-sabotaging?

“Ms. De Vil, I’m sorry, but this isn’t between me and you. It’s between me and my boyfriend,” said Ben.

Pointing a judgmental finger at Ben, Cruella said, “He’s not your boyfriend anymore. You can’t have him.”

This behavior was also a Cruella De Vil classic – getting possessive over her son. So was speaking for him, for that matter. Jay hated seeing this, so he looked over Cruella’s shoulder at Carlos. “Hey, you wanna join this conversation? It’s kind of about you,” Jay said to him.

Carlos seemed to recoil a bit, stepping backwards and hunching over. “I told you not to follow me. I’d expect this from Ben, but you, Jay? Seriously?”

Jay frowned. He considered throwing Ben under the bus by making some excuse about following Ben there to protect him, but he liked Ben too much to do that. Plus, Ben was already in hot water with Carlos. There was no sense in making it worse. Instead, Jay said, “We’re your friends. Why don’t you want us here?”

An unmistakable sadness crossed Carlos’s face. The smoke in the room was getting thick, even with the front door still open. He started to turn away, but before he got very far, a battle-cry-like holler came from outside the open door. Just as Jay turned to see what was happening, Uma charged into the room. She barreled right past Jay and Ben, hollering the whole time, and tackled Cruella to the floor. It all happened so fast that Jay didn’t even realize he and Ben were yelling until Uma stopped.

Jumping backward in alarm, Carlos cried, “What the—”

“We’re here!” came Mal’s voice. Mal and Evie sprinted in, but they stopped before ramming into Jay or Ben. “What’s the emergency?” The question was directed at Jay.

Uma, now holding Cruella belly-down on the floor, got the woman’s hands behind her back as if about to handcuff her. “What were you doing with these three? Did you kidnap them?” she interrogated.

“Woah, woah, wait,” said Carlos over Uma’s shouting. “Why are you three here?” he asked the girls. He finally stepped out from behind the chair.

Stepping over prone Cruella, Mal said, “Jay requested backup, so we’re here as backup.”

Carlos groaned, tapping the ash off his cigarette. “Seriously, Jay?”

“Well, I didn’t expect them to come careening in here like Braveheart,” Jay argued, gesturing toward Uma, who still hadn’t let Cruella go. He hadn’t even invited Uma – she must’ve just tagged along with the other two.

Evie smacked Jay on the shoulder. “What else did you expect, Mr. Details-To-Follow? We don’t even know why you asked us to come, so of course we assumed the worst!”

“Release me, you stupid kid!” Cruella demanded, struggling futilely against Uma’s grip.

Uma looked from Carlos to Jay to Mal. “Should I let the old lady go?” she asked.

“Yes. Please, get off my mother.” Carlos let out an exasperated sigh as Uma stood back up, finally releasing Cruella. “Jeez, guys, what’s next? Are Harry and Gil on their way, too?”

That last comment was obviously supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but all eyes turned to Uma anyway. She clicked her tongue. “Actually, I did text them. I thought we could use the help,” she admitted.

“Ugh.” Carlos sat in his mother’s chair, slouching with a hand on his forehead. “Great. Why not just let all of Auradon come and watch me have a meltdown? I’ve already seen some site that’s published me and Ben’s breakup.”

The three girls gasped at three different pitches. “You broke up?” Evie asked, horrified. “When? And why?”

“We don’t have to break up. Let’s talk this through. Please?” Ben pleaded. The room fell silent at Ben’s words, and Jay realized that Ben hadn’t gotten the chance to say a thing since the girls had gotten there. Ben stepped forward, using this opportunity to take the floor. “Carlos, I’ve never felt a love like ours ever. It’s one of a kind. Please, don’t let fear of the future stop us from having a future together. Our future is full of warmth and light and love! Isn’t that what you want?”

Carlos shook his head as if hurt. “You really think that’s what this is about?” he asked, discarding the remains of his cigarette on the floor. “My fear of the future?” His voice waivered – he was near tears.

Ben was visibly confused. “Well, I, uh… kinda? Yes?” he stammered.

“Can someone please at least give us the cliff notes of what happened here?” Mal asked.

Choked up, Carlos said, “Ben took the magic mirror out of the museum and used it to look at our future.” He sniffled. “Without asking me.”

Evie shot Ben a glare. “You used my magic mirror?”

Jay stepped in before Ben could open his mouth again. “Don’t worry, E. Carlos and I are already pissed off enough about it.”

“Pissed off?” Carlos repeated. “I’m not pissed off! God, none of you understand why this is so messed up, do you?”

The room went silent again. Everyone, including Cruella, exchanged confused glances – it was clear that nobody knew how to answer Carlos’s question.

Ben took a deep breath. “Well, your mom said that I betrayed your trust. Is that true?”

Cruella interjected, “Yes, you did! You pig!”

“Shut up, old lady,” Uma growled. Cruella flinched. Odd that she’d be scared of Uma – Cruella rarely seemed scared of anything. Maybe it was because she knew how easily Uma could tackle her to the ground.

Carlos cursed under his breath, still looking like he might cry. “She’s… not wrong.”

“Carlos—” said Ben as he took a step toward Carlos. He looked so desperate that it was hard to remember that Ben wasn’t just some hopeless teenager in love – the King, of all people, was lovesick and close to groveling.

“Don’t,” Carlos asserted, putting a hand up. Ben stopped where he stood. “Ben, I trusted you to listen to me. I trusted that, no matter how crazy the world around us got, you would respect my _simple wish_ to not rush into anything.”

“But I did!” Ben insisted. “I asked you before we made our relationship public, didn’t I?”

“Did you ask me before using the magic mirror to see if we’d get married someday?” Carlos choked. “You hate magic, and you still did that. And did you ask me before running up to me in broad daylight saying, ‘We’re gonna get married and have babies!’?”

Mal said, “Please tell me you didn’t actually say that to him.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Ben asked. “I’m royalty, of course I date with marriage in mind.”

Jay was this close to knocking Ben’s teeth in.

Carlos raised his voice. “I’m not your doll, dammit! I’m not a toy. You can’t just use me as an accessory for your perfect fairy-tale future. I need to have a say in my own life.” At that, he put his head in his hands. Mal, Evie, and Uma shoved past the others to rush to Carlos’s side. They all bent next to his chair, putting comforting hands on him.

Stammering, Ben managed to say, “I’m sorry, but—”

“No!” Carlos’s interruption was loud and sudden enough that the girls at his side jumped. He stared teary lasers at Ben. “No more ‘I’m sorry, but.’ Either apologize or don’t.”

Ben was taken aback. He looked around the room – at Jay, at Cruella, at the three girls swarming Carlos and glaring at Ben – before straightening his back. He put on a serious look. “Carlos, I’m sorry for hurting you. I wasn’t thinking about what you wanted.”

Jay had to wonder if Ben had been thinking at all.

“I know I’m not perfect, but I love you, and I want to do better,” Ben continued. He took a couple hesitant steps toward Carlos, but Carlos didn’t recoil or try to stop him this time. The girls, still sticking to Carlos’s side, looked from Carlos to Ben and back as if watching a tennis match. “Would you give me a second chance? Please?”

Just as Carlos’s expression softened, two sets of loud footsteps ran toward the door to the apartment. All eyes turned to the entrance, and soon, in ran Harry, followed closely by Gil. Both were panting heavily.

“Uma!” Gil exclaimed, hunching over with his hands on his knees as he panted. How long had they been running? “We’re here. What’s the emergency?” He took the bandana off his head to wipe the sweat off his forehead with it.

Carlos looked at Uma with disbelief. “You didn’t call them off?”

“Thought we could use the extra muscle,” Uma replied with a shrug.

Harry smiled, flexing his biceps proudly. “How can we be of service, my love?” he asked. Gil did likewise.

Uma scoffed. “You’re a little tardy to the party, I think,” she told them.

“And she’s taken!” Evie added, taking her hands off Carlos’s shoulders to wrap an arm around Uma’s waist.

As much as Jay was curious about how Uma fit in with Evie and, presumably, Mal, he was getting impatient. Harry and Gil had just interrupted an important conversation, so he ignored the men’s surprised expressions at the revelation of Uma no longer being single. “Shut up! All of you!” he yelled. When everyone stopped talking, he said, “Thank you. Carlos, Ben… continue. Please.”

But neither Carlos nor Ben got a chance to speak before Cruella butted in. “I’ve seen enough of this madness. This is my home, and I don’t have to put up with this. Carlos, tell these maniacs to leave. You owe me an extra shoulder rub for your blue-haired friend attacking me. And get out of Mommy’s chair.”

Carlos deflated. It was painful to see him this insecure around his mother, but it was obvious that she knew how to tear him down so that he could be more easily manipulated.

“You don’t have to listen to her,” Ben said. “You know that I love you. So, come with me.” He extended a hand to Carlos. “Choose love. Real love. Please?”

When Carlos hesitated, Cruella pushed Ben to the side, making him stumble. “Son, did you really not learn your lesson the first time?” she spat, baring her teeth. “Boys like him only want one thing, and once they get it from you, they’ll toss you aside like an old apple core.”

“That’s not true!” cried Ben. “I don’t just want one thing. I want all of you. I want your smiles, your tears, your struggles, your insecurities… I love it all. And I promise you, I could never dream of using you. I’m so sorry if it ever came across that way.”

Cruella grunted angrily. “Enough! Everyone out of my apartment, now!” she demanded, doing a shooing motion.

When nobody moved, Carlos got up from the chair. He finally spoke. “Come on, guys. Let’s get out of here.”

“No, Carlos, you’re staying here with Mommy,” said Cruella.

“No, I’m not,” said Carlos. His voice was low like he was tired, but surprisingly firm, too. He was actually standing up to his mother!

Cruella scoffed. “Going with them will be a huge mistake! You’re much better off with me!”

“We’ll see about that.” Carlos left the apartment, followed closely by Ben and Jay, then all the others behind them. He kept a serious expression the whole way down the stairs and out of the building, and nobody uttered a word until they were all out on the streets of the Isle, when Harry and Gil started murmuring to the girls about who was dating Uma and what that meant for Mal and Evie.

Jay followed Ben and Carlos when they stepped away from that conversation, though he hoped that he wouldn’t have to mediate between these two too much. Carlos had his eyes fixed on his sneakers. He was frowning. It took a moment of silence before Ben gave him a quiet, “Hey.”

“I still love you,” Carlos blurted out, looking up to meet Ben’s eyes.

Ben’s face lit up like he’d just won a pony. “Really?”

“Yeah,” said Carlos, swallowing nervously. “You were really brave back there, standing up to my mom like that. Thank you.”

Ben reached up a hand to touch Carlos’s face, but he stopped himself. “Um, can I kiss you?” he asked sheepishly.

That was what got Carlos to finally crack a smile. He laughed, wrapping his arms around Ben. They kissed twice.

When the couple let go of each other, Jay gave Ben a friendly punch on the arm. “Things turned out okay this time, so I’ll let you off with a warning,” he said with a twisted smile. “If you hurt my bro like that again, you’ll be crossing the stage at graduation in a wheelchair.”

Ben stared at Jay blankly for a moment before chuckling nervously. Carlos put a hand on Ben’s shoulder and said, “Hey, just so you know… he’s not joking.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay in updating! I've been so focused on revision that I haven't gotten the chance to post much lately, but I'm hoping to start posting more regularly again soon!!

Time went on. First semester ended and second semester began, and with it came a constant buzz about life after graduation. It was all anybody wanted to talk about – who was going to what colleges, who was getting engaged, who was taking a gap year. Many friend groups spent their lunches crying and lamenting about going to different schools, but Carlos considered himself one of the lucky ones. He’d be staying right there in Auradon, and he may actually see Ben more often than he did now if he made it onto the Royal Guard.

Life was all right. Carlos hadn’t spoken to his mother since the whole episode with Ben, which was now almost six months ago, and it was for the best. Now and then, reporters would ask intrusive questions about Carlos’s mother (and just about anything else, it seemed), but Carlos had learned a strategy to deal with them: answer their questions, but be as short as possible.

It wasn’t unusual for these nosy “journalists” to swarm him on his way to classes in the morning. Today was one of those days where they were especially vulture-like. There were at least ten of them, and even though they tried to step in front of him to stop him from getting to class, he didn’t break stride.

“Carlos! Over here!” called a sandy-haired woman with a microphone. Cameras flashed behind her. “Do you still talk to your mother?”

“No,” Carlos replied, walking around the reporter who’d gotten in his way.

Another microphone was shoved in his face. The reporter on the other end of the mic said, “Hey Carlos, who does your hair?”

“Dizzy Tremaine,” said Carlos. He was annoyingly close to the school building, but this guy seemed intent on getting in his way. “I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it,” he added, and that seemed to satisfy the reporter enough that he got out of the way.

Just as Carlos managed past one microphone, another was pointed at him. “One more question, Carlos,” said a stocky woman who spoke fast. “Are you ready for Cotillion?”

The question caught Carlos off-guard. He paused. That was the first time he’d gotten that question, and the first time Cotillion had been brought up to him at all for that matter. “Cotillion?” he repeated.

“Yes, it’s only a short month away,” the stocky woman replied. “Are you ready to join the King’s court?”

Carlos blinked. He hadn’t thought about that at all, so he had no idea how to respond. Was Cotillion even happening that year? And what were his obligations for that event as King Ben’s boyfriend? The buzz of the swarming reporters quieted as they awaited his response. He shook his head. No words populated in his brain. “I need to get to class,” he managed, shoving past the swarm and hurrying inside the school building.

He found some time between school and practice to hunt Ben down, hoping to ask about Cotillion. Ben was at his locker, and his face lip up adorably when he saw Carlos approaching.

“Hey, pup,” said Ben cheerily. “How was your day?” He’d started calling Carlos “pup” lately, and Carlos was starting to warm up to the pet name.

Carlos leaned against the lockers next to Ben’s. “It was good,” he sighed. “Hey, I’ve got a question for you.”

Ben straightened up, giving Carlos a worried expression. “What is it?”

Picking at a loose hangnail, Carlos spoke quietly in case anyone nearby felt inclined to try eavesdropping. “Is Cotillion… happening… this year?”

“Oh! I’ve been meaning to ask you about that.” Ben took one of Carlos’s hands in two of his. Carlos looked up into Ben’s deep hazel eyes. “Do you think you’re ready to do Cotillion?”

“Do I have a choice?” Carlos asked.

“You always have a choice,” Ben replied, kissing the back of Carlos’s hand. The gesture gave Carlos goosebumps, but in a good way. “As long as you and I are together, I won’t force you into anything. If you don’t want Cotillion to happen this year, I’ll call the whole thing off for you.”

Carlos frowned. “I don’t wanna cancel the whole thing! Don’t a lot of students look forward to that dance all year? We can’t disappoint them.”

“Sure we can. There’s practically a ball every other week in Auradon, I don’t think anyone would be too devastated if we cancelled one.”

As much as Carlos appreciated Ben wanting to be accommodating for him, he liked going to parties with Ben, and he didn’t want to cancel Cotillion. “Hmm. I dunno.”

Ben, as if reading Carlos’s mind, said, “Or, we could still throw the party, just without the whole courtship thing. It’s a little archaic, anyway.”

Joining the court… what would that even look like? Carlos imagined putting on some designer suit, being formally welcomed into the court as Ben’s true love, dancing with Ben while the whole school watched… it didn’t sound all that hard. Still, he wasn’t sure. “I’ll think about it. I really don’t know.”

“Okay. Talk later?”

“Yeah, I’ll text you after practice.”

***

Conversations in the locker room before practice almost always became group conversations, with how close the team had gotten. As everyone got into their practice gear, Carlos turned to Jay knowing he’d probably get a response from the whole team. “So, I talked to Ben about Cotillion today.”

The guys who heard it perked up. Some intrigued looks were exchanged.

Looking up from tying his shoes, Jay asked, “Oh yeah, when is that, by the way?”

Carlos sat on the locker room bench to get his sneakers on. “Well… he asked me if I want to cancel it,” he admitted.

A few of the guys in the locker room gasped. Chad even stood up in shock. “You can’t cancel Cotillion! Audrey’s still upset that she missed the dance last year, so I promised I’d make this one extra special for her,” he said, gripping his curly hair.

Jay puffed, saying, “Since when is Cotillion about you?”

When Jay and Chad started glaring at each other, Carlos interjected. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re not cancelling Cotillion.”

“Yes!” Chad cheered, pumping his fist. “Audrey’s gonna be so happy.”

Gil scratched his head. “What’s Cotillion?” he asked.

That’s right, Gil wasn’t in Auradon for last year’s Cotillion. Neither was Harry, for that matter, so it was probably worth explaining to both guys since they were looking at Carlos like he was speaking Simlish.

“It’s another school dance,” Carlos started. “This one’s kinda special because it celebrates the King and his…” Carlos almost said lady. “Partner,” he said instead.

Harry grinned knowingly. “Ohh, so Carlos gets a moment in the sun?” he teased.

Carlos rolled his eyes. If getting attention was being in the sun, then Carlos got enough sun that he was at risk of blistering.

“Well, it’s more than just that,” said Chad. “Traditionally, Cotillion is when the King’s lady, if he has one, joins the King’s court. As a lady of the court,” he overexplained.

All eyes turned to Carlos. Gil asked, “How’s that gonna work for you? Are you gonna become a lady of the court? Or, like, a man of the court?”

Done putting on his shoes, Carlos picked at his nails. “I dunno,” Carlos admitted. “Ben told me that the decision’s all mine, but that just means the pressure’s on me, and I don’t know what to do.”

Jay put an arm around Carlos’s shoulder. The weight was surprisingly comforting, like a weighted blanket. “What are you thinking?”

Somehow, Jay was way too good at coaxing information out of Carlos. He always made Carlos feel comfortable, as if he could say anything. “I’m thinking… that it doesn’t sound that hard. I mean, all I have to do is dress nice and show up, right?”

Chad shrugged. “And say yes. Y’know, joining the King’s court is like getting pre-engaged.”

“Don’t stress him out,” Jay hissed, swatting at Chad’s arm. Chad recoiled, making a face.

“Am I wrong? Are you gonna tell me that I’m wrong?” Chad argued.

“It’s fine,” said Carlos. “Chad’s right. And it’s a little nerve racking, but… I kinda want to do it.”

“Damn, really?” asked Jay.

Carlos nodded. “Yeah. I think Ben might be my true love. Why wouldn’t I want to get pre-engaged to him?”

Harry and Gil looked at each other, nodding in approval. Gil said, “Wow, go Carlos!”

“Yeah, man,” said Chad. “You stick with Ben, and you’ve got it made. You’ll be a consort, then you won’t have to work a day in your life.” Chad said all these things non-judgmentally – he seemed to see them as good things, perhaps even things he was a little envious of, even though Chad himself was set to marry Audrey and become the next Duke of Charmington.

Still, Jay growled defensively at Chad. “That’s _not_ why Carlos likes him,” he asserted.

Chad put his hands up innocently. “I know, I know. And I’m sure Ben likes Carlos for the right reasons, too, like his…” Chad gestured toward Carlos, trying to think of something nice to say. “…Uh, personality.”

Carlos had learned quickly not to put too much weight to anything Chad said – there was clearly either a disconnect between Chad’s brain and his mouth, or just not much going on in his brain. Jay, on the other hand, seemed to have a harder time with Chad. Those two had never gotten along well, despite being in two sports together, and today especially, Jay seemed extra irritable. He glared at Chad, about to bite back, when Lonnie’s voice came from just outside the locker room.

“Aren’t you guys ready yet?” Lonnie called form the other side of the closed door. “We’ve got to practice before the big match this weekend!”

“Coming,” the guys called in unison. They all shuffled out of the locker room in their practice gear. On their way out, Carlos nudged Jay.

“Nug run tonight?” Carlos asked.

Jay smiled. “Hell yeah.”

***

Evie flung Mal’s bedroom door open, grinning wider than a princess on her wedding day. Mal and Uma, sitting on the floor of the room and doing homework, jumped at the noise. They looked up at Evie and saw her holding a large, fat envelope.

“Guess what this is,” Evie enthused, holding up the envelope.

“A new sketchbook for you?” Uma guessed.

“Nope,” said Evie. “It’s an official acceptance letter from the Merlin Institute of Technology!”

Mal and Uma gasped, glancing at each other before turning back to Evie. The Merlin Institute of Technology was one of the most prestigious schools in the nation, and its biochemical engineering program, which Evie had applied to, was world-renowned. Mal knew how hard Evie had worked on her application – revising, editing, and proofreading every tiny bit of the application until her head had spun – and her hard work had paid off. Mal put her laptop down and jumped to her feet. “Oh my god!” she cheered, hugging her girlfriend tightly from the side. Uma did likewise on the other side. They each planted a kiss on one of her cheeks.

Uma said, “Congrats, Perky! You’re going to MIT!” She gave Evie an extra squeeze, which made Evie giggle.

“Well, as excited as I am… I haven’t decided if I’m gonna go,” Evie admitted.

“What?” Mal and Uma gasped in unison, breaking their three-person hug.

Not losing any confidence, Evie elaborated. “Think about it, guys. MIT is a thousand miles away. Going there for school would mean being away from you two, away from this castle, away from Jay and Carlos… being a thousand miles from home.”

“But going to college almost always means being away from home,” Uma argued. “Unless you’re commuting or telecommuting.”

“And,” Mal added, “not everyone’s staying put, you know. Jay’s gonna be all the way in Charmington, and the culinary school Uma’s going to is on the far end of Auradon.”

“But you’re staying put, right?” Evie asked Mal with a hopeful smile. “There’s no reason for you to move away if you’re doing online school. And Carlos isn’t going to college at all, so he’ll be around. Oh! We should ask him to move in with us after graduation! It’ll be just like last summer!”

Uma clicked her tongue. “Yeah, we may even have another Royal engagement soon,” she said with a hint of judgement in her voice.

Though Uma clearly wasn’t trying to get on Mal’s nerves, the reference to her brief engagement to Ben made Mal’s skin prickle. It felt like ancient history to her, even though it was less than a year ago. She didn’t like to think of Ben like that, as her ex-fiancé. She liked to think of Ben as her friend’s boyfriend, and any reminder that they used to date was unsettling at best and unwelcome at worst.

“And what’s wrong with that?” Evie asked. “Carlos and Ben are in love.”

Uma shook her head, her blue braids snaking back and forth with the movement. “They’re too young. My mom didn’t get married until she was 103 years old, and she didn’t have me until she was 110.”

Mal and Evie exchanged a weird look. Mal said, “Humans don’t usually live that long.” She turned back to Evie. “Also, _if_ Ben and Carlos are getting engaged soon, which I kinda don’t see happening this summer, then they’re not gonna have time to hang out with us a bunch. They’re gonna be busy wedding planning and stuff.” Grabbing Evie’s hand, Mal looked at her with a sincerely loving gaze. “E, this is a big opportunity. I don’t think you should pass it up just to stay close to a handful of friends.”

“I’ll think it over,” Evie replied flatly, squeezing Mal’s hand. It was a gesture Evie usually used to reassure Mal, but it did little for her this time.

***

At McDonald’s, Carlos sat across from Jay at a booth, settling in with his chicken nugget meal. It had been a while since they’d gone on a nug run – Carlos was getting busier with his obligations as Ben’s boyfriend, so of course Jay had jumped at the chance to spend some time outside of school and sports with his best friend.

Even if he was in kind of a weird mood.

“What’s up?” Carlos asked, shoving too many fries in his mouth at once.

Jay shrugged. “Not much, what’s up with you?”

“No, like, what’s up? You were acting all weird and, like, irritable today,” said Carlos with his mouth full.

The question caught Jay off guard, mainly because if he were honest, he’d say that he didn’t know what was up. It felt like a lot of little things: seeing his best friend less, knowing he’d be moving away in a few months, stress from school, it all made him irritable. “I dunno,” he told Carlos. “Chad just pisses me off. He thinks he can just say whatever.” That wasn’t the whole truth, but it was true – anyone who’d been around Jay and Chad knew that the two mixed about as well as water and oil.

Carlos frowned. “Is this because he accidentally called me a lady earlier?”

“He’s just irritating,” Jay replied, popping a whole chicken nugget in his mouth. He wanted to change the subject, so after he was done chewing, he said, “So… Cotillion?”

Eyebrows shooting up, Carlos said, “Crap! I told Ben I’d text him after practice!” He pulled out his phone and started typing frantically.

Jay eyed Carlos curiously. “Everything okay?” he asked.

Still focused on his phone, Carlos said, “Yeah, I think he just wanted to talk more about Cotillion.” He sighed. “I’m nervous.”

“You didn’t sound nervous earlier.” Jay dunked a couple of fries in ketchup.

“Ugh. It’s stupid. It’s not even the dance I’m worried about, it’s Ben’s parents.” Carlos bit into a chicken nugget, continuing to talk while he ate. “They don’t like me. Well, it’s not that they don’t like _me_ , they just don’t like that I’m dating Ben.”

Jay half-smiled, ready to give Carlos an older brother style pep talk. “It doesn’t matter what Ben’s parents think. You’re not dating Ben’s parents.”

“It _does_ matter when _Ben_ cares what his parents think. And most of Auradon also cares what they think,” Carlos retorted. He looked down at his phone again. “Oh jeez, Ben’s calling me.” He picked up the call, put it on speaker, and set his phone on the table. “Hey babe. I’m at McDonald’s with Jay.”

“Hey Benny,” said Jay.

Ben’s voice came through the phone. “Oh, hey… am I on speaker?”

“Yeah,” Carlos replied.

“Could you… take me off speaker? I’ve got something kinda private I want to talk to you about.”

“Jay and I are literally the only people here. It’s fine,” Carlos insisted.

Ben sighed, but Jay was secretly happy that he wasn’t excluded from the conversation. If Ben couldn’t say something with Jay around, then he probably shouldn’t be saying it to Carlos either. Jay and Carlos were like family, after all – they were basically a package deal.

“If that’s really what you want,” said Ben. “So… you think you want to do Cotillion? The whole thing, even with all the courtship stuff?”

Carlos thought for a moment. “I guess I could do without any giant stained-glass windows, or taking down any magic barriers, or any magical girls transforming into monsters. Is that all a requirement of joining the court?” he joked.

“Okay, smartass,” Ben teased back. “Seriously. This is a big deal. I want to make sure it’s not too much pressure for you.”

The fact that Ben was communicating all this was impressive, especially considering that he and Carlos’s big fight last November was all about Ben coming on too strong and trying to rush Carlos into things. What Jay found more impressive was how Carlos reacted to Ben in this situation – he seemed like the one who was pushing to go all out for Cotillion, to get pre-engaged. Carlos, who’d ran away from Ben the first time Ben had asked him out. Either Carlos’s new meds were working, or being with Ben was starting to help Carlos with his anxiety instead of making it worse.

“Babe, is joining the court really gonna change my life that much?” Carlos asked. “I mean, I understand the tradition behind it and all, but isn’t ‘man of the court’ more of a title than anything else? Like, it’s not like I can get much more in the public eye than I already am, being a VK and being your boyfriend, right?”

Jay was getting a little suspicious. It started to seem like Ben needed Carlos to convince him that this was a good idea. “Ben,” Jay started, “do _you_ want Carlos to join the court?”

“I want whatever Carlos wants,” replied Ben defensively. “Carlos, I’ll have Lumiere start making preparations for Cotillion. He’ll probably want to talk with you about details in a few days.”

“Cool. Yeah, just let me know,” said Carlos.

“I love you,” said Ben. “My sweet pup.”

Jay nearly spat out his Coke. It always cracked him up when Ben said dumb stuff like that.

“I love you too,” said Carlos. He hung up the phone.

“You guys are such dorks,” Jay laughed.

Carlos puffed. “What, because we said we love each other?”

“No, you’re just dorks. You call each other pet names and make plans over the phone like old people.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“Jealous of your committed relationship? No way.” Jay shook his head and chuckled. “If you were scoring with a bunch of hotties, I might be jealous, but what you and Ben got going on is not for me.”

Clicking his tongue, Carlos said, “Y’know, I’m gonna miss you when you move to Hottie Land for college.”

“Pfft. Come visit me, then. If you’re not too busy snuggling up to Benny Bear,” Jay teased, leaning over the table to tussle up Carlos’s hair.

Carlos grumbled, “Watch it, or I’ll have him throw you in the dungeon.”

They both laughed.

***

“You’re going through with it?” Ben’s dad asked, furrowing his bushy brow.

“Don’t worry,” said Ben. “Carlos is okay with it. He actually seems kind of excited.”

As politely as possible, Ben’s mom asked, “But is it really what you want? Or, is it really what you think is best?”

These family meetings had been brutal lately. Half the time, they were spent with Ben’s parents asking him about Carlos, badgering him with questions like, “Are you sure about this?” or, “Have your feelings changed at all?” He knew his parents wanted to make sure he was making good decisions, but he wished they could see that being with Carlos was a good decision. They acted like Ben was with Carlos against his will, as if the whole thing were the result of a love spell, even though any love spell probably would’ve started wearing off by now. This was, after all, about the length of time he and Mal had dated before things started feeling… forced, even though her love spell had been washed off in the enchanted lake months earlier. Ben had no such feelings about Carlos. His feelings for him were only getting stronger as the weather got warmer, instead of last year when the changing of the seasons had filled him with a desperate longing for change, one that he’d pushed down for months before it had exploded in his face.

It made Ben sad to think about how badly he’d wanted to be in love with Mal. He was sure that had been part of the initial thrill of the love spell she’d given him – just as he’d started losing interest in Audrey and worrying that he might not like girls at all, he’d fallen in love with Mal, the new girl at school. Or, at least, it had felt like love at the time. Even after the love spell had washed away, Ben had desperately held on to Mal anyway… mainly in denial, but also because he genuinely cared for Mal. He’d just eventually had to admit that while he liked her, he wasn’t in love with her.

Knowing what denial felt like, Ben knew there was no denying how he felt about Carlos.

He pressed his lips together. “Mom, Dad, I want you to know that Carlos and I are in love. It’s real love. He said he wants to join the court, so why can’t you be happy for us?” he asked, fed up.

Ben’s parents exchanged a glance. His mom, with all the sugar-coat-things-and-serve-them-lightly grace as she could manage, said to him, “It just seems a little soon.”

“You never said it was too soon for Mal last year,” Ben argued.

The answer to Ben’s argument was written all over his parents’ faces: _but we liked Mal._ Instead of saying that, his dad stumbled through a different argument. “Does the boy even know who his father is?” His mom nodded in agreement.

The question caught Ben off guard. Was that what this was all about? He’d never even thought to ask Carlos, assuming he didn’t know and worrying that it was a sensitive topic. Lord knows it had been sensitive for Mal. “What does Carlos’s father have to do with Cotillion?” Were Ben’s parents suddenly worried about Ben dating someone who was born outside of wedlock? “Wait. We didn’t know who Mal’s father was before she joined the court.”

“Exactly,” Ben’s dad said, adjusting his rectangular glasses. “And her father turned out to be Hades. What if Carlos’s father is dangerous? What if he tries to use Carlos’s status for his own evil gain?”

Though Ben’s dad was extrapolating quite a bit, he made a decent point. Not all the men from the Isle had turned themselves around the way Hades had, and it was hard to imagine what kind of man would want to be with Cruella De Vil – Carlos’s father very well could present a danger to Carlos. Plus, it probably wouldn’t be great if random men started coming out of the woodwork claiming to be Carlos’s father just to take advantage of Ben or Carlos. At the very least, it would be worth asking Carlos if he knew who his father was.

Taking a deep breath, Ben said, “Okay. If I ask Carlos who his father is, then will you be okay with him joining the court?” He asked them this mainly in hopes that they’d stop pestering him about it – it was his decision at the end of the day, anyway. He was just sick of them asking if he was sure about it.

Both parents nodded. “It may depend on who his father is, but no matter what, it’s best to know,” said his dad.

“Then that’s what I’ll do,” said Ben with cheery resolve. He shivered with a mixture of nerves and excitement. It was time to find out who his boyfriend’s father was.


End file.
